Naruto: More than skin deep
by soulthief2
Summary: This story has been discontinued, please refer to The Fifth rider of armageddon who has graciously accepted taking it over
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: more than skin deep

Chapter 1

It had been two days since Naruto had left to retrieve Sasuke, and Sakura was worried. _I hope Sasuke is okay._ As usual, the pink-haired girl had her priorities in order.

Each day she would stand at the main gates, watching for her beloved. Not a single thought ran through her head about how Naruto would be fairing.

The others were very much the same. Kakashi was worried about his star student, Shikamaru was left thinking when he could fight Sasuke, Chouji was content to eat potato chips, Ino was just as worried as Sakura as to how Sasuke was, and Lee and Dog-boy (sorry, forgot his name, plz help me) were busy training.

The only people who worried about Naruto were Iruka, Tsunade, Hinata, and oddly enough, Gaara. But that was it. Had the boy known exactly how many people had cared for him, he would have probably let Sasuke kill him.

As it was, the renegade ninja had done a good enough job on his own. it was the talk of the town when a faint dust trail was seen, and it was estimated that the two would be there in two hours. However, the two hours came and passed. It was almost five when Naruto finally showed up, carrying a bruised and bloodied Sasuke on his back.

Limping into the main gates, Naruto set the boy down on the ground unceremoniously, much to the annoyance of the vast majority of the village. Breathing shortly, as he was in too much pain to do anything else, Naruto crouched over, as Sakura and the others came up.

Straightening painfully, he forced a smile at Sakura. "I told you… i… would bring…him…back." If he was expecting anything, it wasn't what he received next.

-SLAP!-

Naruto's eyes widened as he experienced a pain such as nothing else entered his mind. He stared at Sakura, holding his cheek. "How dare you hurt Sasuke-kun like that!" And he was sent into a wall of a building by a spin-kick. Sakura pulled her sleeves up, ready to deal more punishement, as she knew Naruto could handle much more than that.

But the boy didn't move. As the dust cloud from his impact dissipated, it showed Naruto, still against the wall. He coughed once, hard, and blood flew from his mouth. Barely breathing, clawed at the wall, pulling himself up.

In excruciating pain, he stood straight, only to be punched by Ino this time. With his head turned from the blow, Naruto had no way to block what happened next. For the first time, Sakura and Ino worked together, both punching him in the chest.

Also for the first time, they actually heard Naruto scream in pain. The girls looked shocked, and then noticed that their hands were covered in blood.

It was then that Iruka stepped in, pushing the girls to the ground, while ripping open Naruto's shirt. He looked once at the wound before turning and spewing the contents of his stomach all over the ground.

In the middle of Naruto's chest, there was a huge wound, so large you could see all the way through him. the only thing keeping the boy alive were several lines of red chakra. Blood covered Naruto's entire front, not only from the major wound, but also from several holes that looked like puncture wounds from kunai and shuriken.

Stepping back in horror, Iruka felt something he hadn't felt in a long time; anger.

Roaring, he swiveled and hauled the two girls up by the front of their shirts, ready to kill them. "How dare you!" He threw them to the ground, sending them sliding several feet.

Iruka would have most like succeeded in his attempt to kill them, had Tsunade and Kakashi not restrained him. the man was actually foaming at the mouth, clawing at his captives. Sakura and Ino stared at him with frightened eyes. This… this demon was so unlike the Iruka they knew.

"How dare you! Naruto has a hole in his chest the size of a grapefruit and all you do is beat on him, for hurting your traitorous boyfriend! He nearly died to keep you happy! The only thing keeping him alive right now is the damn fox!" There were gasps all around, but nobody said anything. Iruka continued to rant, "He saved my life, right after I had failed him at the Academy! He learned a Jounin technique in just a few hours, and actually beat a Jounin! And what has anyone done to repay him? They curse him, beat him, treat him like dirt, when he should be treated like a hero! I'll kill you, I'll kill you all!"

he actually managed to claw free of Tsunade and Kakashi, and charged the girls, before a hand stopped him. "Wait." Iruka froze at the voice. It could only belong to, "Naruto."

The boy smiled painfully. "Thank you for saying those things about me, you were the first person, besides the third, to treat me like an actual human. I hope you don't mind if I think of you as a big brother. However, as I've actually seen the number of people here who care for me, I feel that it's my time to leave. I might come back, but right now, I don't know. Thank you for all you've done." With that, the horrifically injured boy hugged the first person he considered a friend.

Releasing Iruka, Naruto limped over to Tsunade, who turned pale at the sight of all of the blood. Naruto noticed this and stopped short, not wanting to make his next friend sick. He was shocked when she willing steeped up to him and hugged him lightly. "I understand why you are doing this. I won't label you as a missing nin. Take care of yourself." Naruto nodded, and then turned to Hinata. "You really are cute, it's just hidden when you're so shy."

Hinata blushed heavily, before fainting right then and there. Naruto chuckled, but stopped, coughing up more blood. Tsunade steeped towards him, but he waved her off. "Don't worry, Kyuubi will heal it as soon as we both have enough chakra. The fuzzball and I are too stubborn to die."

Tsunade face-faulted when Naruto called the demon fuzzball. Smiling, Naruto limped through the gates into the forest, leaving the entirety of the village stunned.

Suddenly, the village felt empty, as if it had lost a part of itself. Tsunade watched the boy disappear, and then blew a silent whistle. Instantly, 7 ANBU appeared by her. Pointing to the one wearing a wolf mask, the hokage said, "I want one of you to take Uchiha to the hospital, and placed under heavy guard. The rest, arrest any villager you can find."

For days, naruto walked, as his wounds slowly healed. However, some wounds could never be healed, such as ones in the heart.

2 weeks into his voyage, and he came across a large cave. Taking a glance at the gathering storm clouds, Naruto decided to stay the night in the cave.

Imagine his surprise when a large boulder rolled across the entrance of the cave, just as he entered. With a shout, he beat at the boulder, to no avail. Sighing, he decided the only way left to go was deeper into the cave.

After a walk of nearly 5 minutes, he came across a large room, carved into the stone. In it were various machines and tools that looked as if they were for training. However, the object that really captured Naruto's attention was the large mirror hanging from the wall.

Standing in front of the glass, he smirked at how injured he was, even after two weeks of healing. He was covered in blood, and his shirt was in tatters.

"Damn I'm one ugly bastard." "Got that right." Yelling, Naruto backed away from the mirror, as his reflection had just spoken back to him.

chuckling, the mirror image of him steeped out of the glass. "Yo." Naruto instantly took to a fighting pose. "What the hell are you?" The doppelganger laughed. "Technically I'm you, but that's a conversation for later." Sighing, the clone took a seat one on of the weight machines in the room. "this chamber is where the fourth hokage trained when he was a jounin, in his attempt to become hokage. This cave is a magical place. It allows one to train against himself, so that no matter what, he will never become stronger than himself. If that makes anysense, you need a brain scan."

Looking Naruto in the eye, the clone said seriously, "Actually, it's a surprise that you were even able to enter this room, as only those who are related to the 4th can enter. Well, whatever. So, do you want to become stronger, or simply leave?"

Naruto smiled, "you tell me, after all, you're just like me." The doppelganger grinned, "I thought so."


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto

Chapter 2

Three years later, we find ourselves in a very familiar cave, where a certain blond teenager was doing push-ups one-handed, which might seem normal for a ninja, except that the ninja had a boulder tied to his back.

Naruto had changed quite a bit in his three years of non-stop training. He was slightly taller, but heavily muscled. His hair had grown longer, and was tied into a ponytail. He was also more subdued, a result from his training in assassination techniques.

Panting, the boy finished his exercises and stood, the boulder disappearing as he did so. he grinned at his clone who clapped. "1,000 push ups with a 2 ton boulder. Very nice." "Yeah, sure. What's next?"

Raising an eyebrow, the clone got up from his seat. "Well, actually, there's only one thing left. I think it's time to deal with the furball."

Two minutes later, the two of them found themselves in a dank hallway, which led to a black room that held an enormous cage.

Standing in front of the cage, both Narutos kicked the door, yelling, "Hey furball! Wake up!"

A loud growling erupted from the cage, and a furry paw shot out, but stopped short, a mere inch from Naruto's head. Naruto didn't even flinch. Actually, he did quite the opposite. Kicking the paw away, he yelled out, "Knock it off! We've come to talk to you."

**What do you want, brat? It's bad enough I have to deal with one of you.**

Despite the fox demon's gruff tone, he was fond of the boy, and had been extremely impressed with the results of his training.

"I have an idea. You want to get out of here, right?" seeing the fox's suspicious nod, Naruto continued, "Well, I think I can give you the next best thing. What would happen if we merged?"

The demon's eyes widened, before quickly returning to their original bored look. "**You and I would become one, sharing the same body, senses, emotions, and thoughts. You would gain enormous power, and I would be able to actually do something again. But why would you even think of this? You've never had any reason to help me before, why now? I made your life a living hell."**

"No, you never made my life anything. It was the people who made my life hell. It was them who beat me, who hated me, not you. Besides, seeing someone chained up, even a somewhat nice demon like you isn't right." Naruto seemed to think for a second, before asking, "By the way, why did you attack the village?"

Kyuubi sighed. He had known this was going to come sooner or later. **"I had been sleeping in my den when I felt something tugging at me, or rather at my soul. As I looked back at my mate and kits, they too, were being summoned. Suddenly, I found myself and my family surrounded by ninja of Konoha village. They slaughtered my family and so, I took my revenge. **

"That actually sounds justified. I just thought you wanted to kill us all or something." Kyuubi snorted.

I don't kill unless I have a reason. In fact, that incident 3 years ago almost had me ready to attack the village again, just for what they did to you. No one deserves that kind of treatment. Fine. I will consent to your request, but only on one condition; that you go back to the village and make them acknowledge you. Nothing violent though. Oh, you must also find yourself a mate. Otherwise, I'll send perverted thoughts through your head at inopportune moments. Understand?

Chuckling, Naruto nodded, and stepped up to the cage. Gripping the bars, he braced his legs and wrenched the gate apart. Throwing the door away, he backed away to let kyuubi stretch his legs.

For a split second, the two stared at each other, like two scientists studying a new bug. And then both began to laugh. As they did, their bodies began to glow, and merge. Pain unlike anything they had ever experienced before hit them, but they stood up to it, each noting the changes in themselves.

Kyuubi slowly felt feeling spread through him, he could see, his hearing returned, and he actually felt hunger, all things he had missed while being caged away.

Naruto slowly grew taller, his hair longer, with red highlights. His eyes turned from totally blue, to blue with a small red circle around the irises. His muscles got bigger, and harder as they became more dense. His ears became slightly pointed, and his canines became sharper.

After what seemed an eternity of pain, Naruto collapsed onto the floor of the cave, unconscious. The doppelganger smiled, and then walked towards the boy. Reaching out a hand, he let himself flow into the boy, joining the two already inhabiting the body.

Groaning, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on the stone floor, and every muscle burned with a dull pain, as if he had just come back from a hard training set.

Gingerly, he pulled himself up to his feet, and caught sight of himself in the mirror. He grinned. "Hey, I look kinda cool." But then he noticed something else. His clothes were umcomfortably tight, and several inches too short.

The tenager that walked out of the entrance to the cave was not the same one that had gone in almost 4 years ago. He had thrown away his orange jumpsuit and now wore what the doppelganger had said was what the 4th had worn.

Black baggy pants tucked into black boottops, and was tied off at the waist with a black belt. Covering his chest was a white muscle shirt, over which there was a long black shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to mid forearm. Holding his hair back was his father's old forehead protector, the uzumaki clan symbol shining brightly.

The boy smiled as he breathed in fresh air for the first time in years. A mewling sound drew his attention away from the air and down to his feet.

Raising an eyebrow, he chuckled. Sitting between his feet was a kit, baby fox, who was looking at him with trusting eyes. Bending down, Naruto scratched the kit behind the ears, and it seemed to smile, rubbing its head against his hand. Laughing, he picked the kit up, knowing for some strange reason that his family was dead.

Sakura had changed immensely over the last three years. She had grown stronger, for one, but also more quiet. The reason why was that Sasuke, two weeks after being returned, had left again, this time killing two shinobi in his flight. Any illusions Sakura or any other girl had about Sasuke had been shattered at that point.

She was currently walking down the streets towards her house when she felt something odd. It was a large chakra signature, and it was headed this way, fast. Curious, she walked towards the main gates.

Hinata had indeed grown more confident since Naruto had left. She talked like any other person now, loudly and with courage. Her clothing had become bold too. She was wearing a black skirt, with calf high boots, and a white tank top, showing off some…assets… she had received over the past 3 years. She too, sensed the chakra signature, and made her way to the gate.

The trees were a blur as Naruto ran, Kit, as he had called the baby fox, perched on his shoulder, mewling happily. Naruto smiled at the cute fox cub's antics, and sped up. He estimated that at his current speed, he would reach the village in about 15 minutes. He began to whistle as he ran, a tune the doppelganger had taught him, a tune his father, the fourth, used to sing.

The ANBU guards at the gate to Konoha steadily grew more nervous as the chakra signature grew larger and larger. Already, it was twice the size of their combined, and was growing faster as whatever it was that was coming towards them came closer.

Deciding to have some fun, Naruto leaped onto a branch that was elevated 10 feet easily, and jumped to a higher branch on the tree opposite it, continuing the process until he reached the crown, where he quickly hopped from tree top to tree top. He decided that this was a much faster and definitely a lot more fun way to travel than running on the ground. Kit also seemed to enjoy it, hanging on to Naruto's shirt with his claws while mewling happily.

The two guards finally felt the main source that was radiating the chakra signature and nearly wet themselves. Looking up, they saw the trees wave as a black figure jumped from one to the other. Suddenly, the figure leaped from the crown of the last tree in front of them, and did several flips, to land heavily, creating a crater as he did so.

This time, he guards did wet themselves.


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto

Chapter 3

The figure stood slowly, as if stretching. A mewling sound came from behind him, and he reached behind his head to help a fox cub onto his shoulder. That simple motion put the guards into a panic, and they let off with two shuriken.

A black blur streaked towards them, and they found themselves presented with their own weapons. "you know," Said Naruto, "you should be more careful when playing with sharp objects, you could hurt someone." Placing the shuriken in the hands of the jounin, Naruto clapped them on the back and headed into the village.

He got ten feet inside the gate when he was surrounded by ten ANBU, all of whom looked ready to kill. The one wearing the wolf mask stepped forward. "Halt. You are to leave this village immediately, by order of the hokage."

Naruto cracked his neck, and then his knuckles. "Hokage, huh? Well' I'd like to see you try and stop me."

He made handseals so fast the captain couldn't see what they were, and he definitely didn't recognize the form of the jutsu.

**Kit form- Shockblade!**

The ANBU attacked him all at once, a sore mistake on their part. Naruto vanished, only to reappear on the other side of the mass of bodies. The ANBU collapsed, en masse, into a huge pile in the street.

Naruto clucked his tongue once, and then shrugged and headed into the city.

Sakura skidded to a stop as she saw the pile of ninjas, all of them knocked out. Whistling, she caught sight of Hinata, who was looking at the bodies as if something wasn't right. "Hinata! Do you notice something?" The other girl looked startled for an instant, but quickly regained her composure. "yes, I think the person who had been heading this way did this. There are chakra trails everywhere, coming from the walls, ground, even mid-air. I'd say whoever did this was a jounin at least."

Sakura cursed. It couldn't be…"Sasuke? No, that bastard left right after the demon child left. Good thing too, the two of them were bad news for this village. And to think that brat wanted to be hokage." A cool voice that sounded somewhat familiar spoke up, "Everyone is entitled to his or her own dreams, aren't they? What right do other people have to take it away?" "Are you defending the demon boy? Don't you have any idea what that thing inside him did to this village?" there was a pause. "Yes, I know. I also know the reason behind it's attack." There was a gasp. "What was it? I thought it was just a bloodthirsty monster." "Shinobi of the leaf killed its mate and family after they attempted to summon kyuubi. This drove Kyuubi to attack the place where the shinobi are trained to destroy any demon they come across."

"Bah! That can't be the reason. Anyways, how would you know that?" The boy chuckled, "Heard it from an inside friend."

Sakura swirled around, looking for the owner of the voice. There, by a food stand. He was tall, heavily muscled, and seemed to exude an aura of danger. He had blond hair that was highlighted with red.

Sakura was also shocked to see the chakra signature of the man, it was totally out of her scope. "Hinata! Come here!" Hinata answered the call, "What?" Sakura pointed to the teenager by the food stand. Hinata licked her lips. "Wow, you really know how to call them, Sakura. Do you want to go first, or should I?" Hinata laughed at the look on her friends face. "Just kidding." Turning her face towards the boy, Hinata scanned his chakra, emitting a low whistle as she did so. "damn, he's strong. I bet he's the one who did all this, I've never seen him around before."

Much to Sakura's surprise, Hinata walked straight up to the boy and got in his face, even though he was a good head taller than her. "Can I help you?" He asked politely. "Why did you attack those ANBU?" The man shrugged. "Simple, they attacked me first."

He blocked the punch she sent towards his gut with ease. Sighing, he tightened his grip so that just a little pain came through. "Really, after having defeated 12 jounins, do you really think that a chuunin like you would beat me?"

After he said that, he ducked to avoid a spin kick from sakura. Laughing, he turned. "Attacking from behind, poor form my lady…you!"

The boy went from humor to venom in less than a second. Sakura froze just as she was about to attack him again. "You! You! The pink-haired kunoichi!" The boy had forgotten all about Hinata, and so the girl took the opportunity to hit him, hard.

Which was probably why her hand was instantly swollen and red. _What's he made of, stone?_ The boy didn't even feel the attack. He was stil fully concentrated on Sakura.

"You! You are the one who hurt me the most! I did it all for you, and what do you do? You throw it all in my face for not doing it cleanly!" Sakura had no idea what the boy was talking about, but whatever it was, he was pissed about it. It was then that she noticed his eyes. Blue, with a little ring of red around the blue that was slowly consuming the blue. She had seen those eyes somewhere before…

"I brought the bastard back for you, and you repay me by beating me into the ground, even when I was mortally injured!" Then it her. Literally. She bounced a few feet from her flight, and slowly got up, realizing who he was, and what he could have done had he really wanted to kill her.

Naruto himself just turned around, he had other things to deal with. Or rather, people.

Kakashi was sitting on the grass in training ground 7 when a shadow fell across his sacred orange book. "excuse me, could you please move? You're in my light."

"hello, _sensei_!" kakashi froze at the voice. "Naruto." "Got it in one. Maybe you're not as stupid as other people say you are. Then again, by reading that crap, you can't be helping your brain much, that's for sure."

That hit a nerve. Kakashi didn't care if someone insulted him, he was used to it. But when someone insulted the masterpiece that was icha icha, they paid.

Moving his fastest, he grabbed Naruto's throat. Or thought he did. In less than a second, his arm was twisted behind him and Kakashi found himself facing something he hadn't seen for years. The ground.

"I'll let you and the dirt reacquanit yourselves. I have work to do."

Ino gulped. Standing in front of her was one person who she had hoped to never see again. "hello Ino. How nice to see you after our last little… encounter." "Naruto!" The boy picked up a rose, smelling it. "yep. And this time, I'm back to stay. No matter what." Sighing, he smelled the rose again, before flicking it, pinning Ino to the wall, one thorn digging into her neck, as the stem was caught on the fabric of her shirt.

"Have a nice day."

Shikamaru, Chouji, and dog-boy were all lying in the grass, staring at the clouds, when a shadow fell across them. "hello. Enjoying yourselves?" Skiamaru looked up at the newcomer, and with his enormous intellect, instant deciphered who it was. "naruto."

Bending down, Naruto picked all of them up, Chouji with his left hand, and Shikamaru and dog-boy with his right. "even after 4 years, I still remember how I was treated by you guys. Well, I think it's time I repay the favor." He lifted them all into the air and kicked them in mid-air, sending each over 50 yards away.

It was now time for the better part of his reunion.

He opened the door to the academy, smiling as he saw Iruka giving a lecture on how to properly throw shuriken. Iruka glanced at him, blinking. "I'm sorry, can I help you?" "Yes, I'm looking for a man named Iruka. I have a message for him." "I am Iruka. Who's the message from?"

"Well, he claims he's your little brother." Iruka put on a confused face. "Little brother? I don't have… wait! What's the message!" Smiling, Naruto said, "he said that he's come home and thinks that you really need to pay attention to the boy who's sleeping in the corner."

Iruka's jaw dropped. "Naruto?" "Yep!" The two of them enveloped in a hug. Iruka laughed, "Well, you seem to have done well for yourself, little brother. Where have you been?"

Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head. "I was training up in the mountains. I had a really hard teacher, but it was worth it. I'm stronger now, but my training had some effects on my body." Iruka frowned, "Such as what?" Grinning, Naruto picked his brother up by his collar. Iruka gulped, and Naruto laughed. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you, though, I would never want to get you really pissed at me." Setting his brother down, Naruto turned serious. "So, have you seen the old hag anywhere?"

Iruka's eye twitched, and he looked as if he was suppressing a smirk. "What? I call her that all the time! She _is _an old hag!"

"Baka! Don't call me that!" And Naruto was driven into the floor of the academy headfirst. From the foot-deep impression in the marble floor, a hand came up waving, a muffled voice saying, "Hey obaa-chan, how's it going?"

Bending down, Tsunade flicked her finger into the back of Naruto's skull. (She can do this without hurting herself because of all the muscles that have become harder, Naruto's head muscles are still weak. Now think, what could that possibly signify?)

"I'll grant you a pardon for that last one only because you just got here. It is nice to see you again, though."

Laughing, Naruto pulled himself out of the impression and stood, shocked to find that he was almost two feet taller than Tsunade. Tsunade gaped at the fact that he was taller than her, but her awe turned to fear when she saw his red-rimmed eyes, slightly pointed ears, and the baby fox on his shoulder. "Did you…?" Naruto nodded once. "And it hurt like hell, but he was never truly evil, did you know that? he attacked the village because some fool tried to summon him and ended up killing his family." Naruto blanked out for a moment, and then turned red. "Uh… sorry about that, Kyuubi just told me that he's a she. I guess I just assumed since the village was attacked so viciously, that it was a male."

Tsunade and iruka sweat-dropped in the background.

"Oh well, I have to go, see you later!" Tsunade and Iruka watched as the teenager walked off. "He's grown up." Noticed the hokage. Iruka nodded, "yes. Did you notice that he defeated 12 jounin on his arrival? All of them ANBU." Tsunade didn't appear to be surprised. "I wouldn't put it past him at this point. The scary thing is that his powers from the Kyuubi are not total, he's gathering them in as he grows stronger. Right now, he has but a fraction of what he could have." Iruka frowned. "What do you mean?"

tsunade sat in a chair at Iruka's desk. "What I mean is that Naruto had abnormal stamina before he merged with Kyuubi. And now with the addition of hi… I mean her chakra, think of it like having the demon fox's power added to Naruto's enormous strength. So, in effect, if a fully merged Naruto met against Kyuubi from 16 years ago, he would be able to defeat her."

Iruka's eyes widened. But then something caught his eye. "Oy! You, stop sleeping!"

Kyuubi wandered about in Naruto's mind. Though she was fully integrated into his body, she still had the ability to search through his mind. She stopped at a particular painful moment. It was a month after Naruto had begun training with his doppelganger. The boy was sitting on a stone bench, after not being able to get any sleep. His head was between his legs, and wet droplets struck the floor. He was crying.

Kyuubi's eyes watered at the sight, her heart almost breaking. She would have given almost anything to have been able to hug him and say it was all going to be ok, but she was stuck in him, and she figured that was going to be as close as she ever got.

"Not quite." "What! How did you end up here?" Naruto's doppelganger grinned. "I did the same thing you did. I couldn't let such an interesting person leave without an escort. Besides, now when he has children, his powers, along with yours and mine, will be passed along through them. You, or rather, your offspring, are assured a future. What happened 16 years ago will never happen again. That is, of course, assuming Naruto lives. As strong as he is, he still can be beat by some ninja, and definitely by a lot of demons."

Kyuubi frowned, "Why would demons be after him?" The doppelganger rolled his eyes. "Think! Come on, your 10,000 years old, for crying out loud! Most assuredly, you had demonic enemies in your realm, but while you were sealed away in Naruto, your chakra was hidden. Now that you've merged with him, they will be able to sense it."

Kyuubi burst into tears. She couldn't stand the thought of Naruto dying at the hands of her enemies. "Is there anyway I can help him? He needs protection!" The doppelganger sighed. "About time you came to that. Alright, here's what we can do. On the next full moon, his chakra strength will increase, but leave the link between the two of you weaker. With my help, you will be able to leave Naruto's body, but with a few consequences. One, you will be human, and two, you will have no powers. They will still belong to Naruto. But you will be able to help him from the outside, which is much better than helping him from the inside. Also, you will become his age, but I have no idea why that is." Eyeing her curiously, he remarked, "But I don't think you will have a problem with that. and, in case you're wondering, your body will behave just like any other human's, including the important bits." He winked at her cheekily, before disappearing, leaving a furiously blushing Kyuubi with her somewhat perverted thoughts.

Now, while all of this was happening, Hinata ran over to her friend to help her up. Already Sakura had a large bruise forming on her face, swelling it up. Hinata cursed. "damn that boy! I'm going to kill him!" she started to run off, but was stopped by Sakura, who had a faraway look on her face. "Don't, I deserved that, after what I did to him."

Hinata was confused, "what are you talking about? You've never seen that boy before!" "Yes I have, 4 years ago, when he brought Sasuke back, and had a large hole in his chest." "Naruto!" Sakura nodded, "Yes, it's him. He's come back, and he's probably getting revenge on those who hurt him."

Just then, Ino ran up to them. Her hair was flying wildly about her face and she had a scared shitless look on it. A small hole in her shirt and a trickle of her blood running down her neck indicated something very odd had happened. "Naruto's back! He nearly stabbed me with a rose!" "A rose?" Asked a skeptical Hinata. "yes, a rose dammit! The damn thing pinned me to a wall! The bastard told me he was here to stay."

She noticed Sakura's state for he first time. "What happened to you?" "Naruto." Answered sakura simply. "What! He beats you up, and all he does is give me a little scratch? That's not fair!" Sakura laughed bitterly. "He did this with one punch, and that punch sent me back several yards."

Ino whistled, just as a dirt-covered kakashi walked by, a surprised expression on his face. "Sensei! What happened to you? You're covered in dirt!" The jounin looked at them blankly. "I just had a conversation with the ground, as Naruto put it. He took me out in one move." The man walked away, as if in a trance.

The three girls looked at each other. They were fucked.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto

Chapter 4

Was lying in the training field, petting kit, when he sensed three chakra signatures coming up on him. recognizing them, he stayed where he was, smiling as Kit yawned, and laid his head down on Naruto's chest. As the cub went back to sleep, Hinata, Ino, and Temari walked up behind him.

"What do you three want?" Hinata frowned. "Well that's a fine way to treat someone after having not seen them for 4 years." Kit raised his head, and regarded the hyuuga girl with a sleepy eye. He looked at Naruto again, and then laid his head back down.

The fox cub seemed to have a strange affect on the girls. As one, the awwwed, and ran up to gently pet the sleeping form. Much to Naruto's sense of betrayal, the cub smiled and stretched to have his belly rubbed.

"Traitor." He muttered, but stayed where he was. He brought his attention up from the cub, and choked. He found himself staring at two very shapely rear ends and a rather revealing view of Hinata's cleavage. Unfortunately, this was having adverse effects on the fit of his pants.

Quickly, he gently removed Kit from himself and sat straight up. "I need to train. Do you mind watching Kit?" The girls all stared at him oddly, and Naruto swallowed hard as he realized he could look down all of their shirts.

_Damnit! Stop thinking like a hentai!_ Hinata shrugged. "Sure, why not? But do you mind if we watch you while you train?" "Uh… no, not really."

He moved a few feet away from them and performed his shadow clone technique. A puff of smoke later, there stood Naruto's doppelganger, with a very surprised look on his face. "how did you know I was in you?" Naruto shrugged, "I felt something a little odd. I just left it until now. Anyways, I need to do some training, would you mind?"

The doppelganger grinned, "Of course not. You know the routine." Naruto nodded, and grabbed a boulder that was lying in the grass, and laid it on his back, then began to do his push ups.

The girls' jaws dropped. That boulder had to weigh at least 3 tons, and the boy was using it as a weight for working out!

After doing his push ups, Naruto worked on his marksmanship, throwing kunai and shuriken at various targets the doppelganger threw. All of them hit.

After that, it was sparring.

Naruto removed his shirt, already forgetting that he was in mixed company. Four tongues licked four pairs of lips in unison at the sight. (Don't forget kyuubi) The ninja's muscles were large, and looked as if they had been chiseled. Around each bicep wound a tattoo, one was a dragon, the other looked like a fox decal.

Both Narutos faced off in exactly the same forms. A gust of wind blew across the field, and the two launched themselves at each other. As one, their fists connected, and a huge burst of wind swept from the point of impact. But the two boys didn't wait to contemplate that; they just set about bashing each others' head in.

Kit decided that this was far more interesting than sleep, so he sighed and sat up to watch his master practice. As he watched Naruto flip off a tree, a strange scent filled his nose. Wincing, he sneezed to try and get it out, but the smell was persistent. Irritated, he looked for the producer of his annoyance.

It was then that he noticed the girls' deadpanned look, and the droll coming from their mouths. Realizing what he was smelling, Kit's eyes went wide, and he dug his nose into the ground whimpering. Naruto was going to be _so_ embarrassed if he knew what these girls were thinking.

Naruto slid back from a ruthless punch to his chest, and smiled. "You know, for a long time it pissed me off that I could never beat you, but then I realized that no matter how strong I got, you would always be stronger, which, in turn, would force me to become stronger. That wasn't possible here in the village."

The doppelganger smiled as well, and began forming chakra into his hand. "well, I must also say that you always had me worried that you would one day beat me, especially when you reached Jounin level in a single year."

Naruto blushed, "Did you have to say that in front of them?" he jerked his head towards the girls staring at him. The doppelganger laughed. "What? I think it's important for you to find a girlfriend. And so what if you have more than one? In some cultures, a man can have as many wives as he wants." Naruto snorted and charged up his chakra too, a mixture of red and blue, that made a beautiful violet. "like a demon-carrier such as me would ever have a chance with any girl. The moment they found out what I was, they would run away."

Thankfully, three of the four girls couldn't hear this, but Kyuubi did, and it hurt her to hear the hate in the boy's voice. Slowly, she departed into a portion of his mind that he never used, to cry herself asleep.

The boy's frustration and loneliness surprised the doppelganger, he wasn't made to be emotional support, so he did the only thing he was qualified for; taking the boy's mind off of it with an attack.

Launching himself at the real Naruto, a sudden thought entered the clone's mind, and he smiled. Naruto also ran at his opposite, and with a shout, the two techniques were brought together.

**-Rasengan!-**

a huge explosion rocked the field, and kit brought his nose out of the ground, in pure fear that his master had gotten hurt. Yipping, he ran into the mushroom cloud that had sprung up.

The girls were too busy trying to re-hinge their jaws to notice that the fox cub was gone, but when they were done, Ino was the first to notice that he was gone.

"Oh crap!" Scrambling on her hands and knees, ino searched the immediate area for Kit, not finding him anywhere. "What's wrong?" asked Temari, who seemed oblivious to the cloud that was slowly dissipating behind her. "Kit's gone! I can't find him anywhere! He must have run into the attack!" Temari paled. If Naruto was as close to the fox cub that he let on, then it was assured they would be killed when he figured out Kit had run into his attack…

"Hey, I thought I asked you guys to watch Kit?" the voice brought them back to face the carnage the attack had left. Out of the dust walked naruto, his shirt in his arms forming a soft nest for Kit, who had gone back to sleep once assured his master was safe.

The three girls swallowed in unison, just waiting for the ninja to bloe up at them. "It's a good thing Kit ran in _after_ the explosion, or he would have been killed. I thought he was safe with you guys. I guess I was wrong."

He walked past them, a sad look on his face as he made his way to the hokage's office.

"About bloody time I got a mission. What rank is it?" Naruto was sitting in a chair across from Tsunade who gave him a quizzical look. "It's an A rank. From what I can tell this should be easy for you. We need you to infiltrate a sound base and kill their captain, a man named Heero. He's said to be quite good. Also, there's a bonus for any additional ninjas killed." Looking interested, Naruto asked, "How many ninjas are estimated to be there?" looking down at the folder, tsunade replied, "About 200. Your teammates will be Hinata and Sakura. Does that meet with your approval?" Naruto nodded and grabbed the folder.

Two hours later, he found himself waiting for his two teammates when a familiar voice in his head spoke up.

**Naruto, what do you think of me?**

That was an odd question, but naruto answered anyways. "Well, I'd have to say you're a friend to me. Well, no. You're somewhat more than a friend, after all, you were the only one to be there for me when things got really rough."

**But nothing more than that?** Naruto frowned, "What? Is something bothering you, Kyu?"

He didn't get a response.

Half an hour later, his teammates both arrived, both carrying an enormous load of gear. Naruto ignored Sakura and faced Hinata. "you guys look like you're ready for a war. Are you sure you want to bring all that?" Hinata looked at him like he was nuts, but Sakura was hurt that he ignored her. Shrugging, Naruto set off like a rocket, setting a pace that left the two girls struggling to keep up.

Obviously, Naruto arrived at the base first, and had managed to navigate half the complex from a tree before his teammates showed up. Smiling at their sweaty, panting forms, he turned back to his recon. "As far as I can tell, Tsunade's estimation on the enemy's strength was accurate, 200 to 220 ninjas, a few of them jounin, but most chuunin and genin. However, there is one who looks like he might be kind of fun to fight." Naruto pointed to a large form standing in the middle of the camp.

He was tall, easily 6'9", and was totally covered in armor. A sword almost seven feet long hung from his back. The scariest thing was that the man moved as if the armor weighed nothing. Grinning, Naruto looked at his companions. "That's our target. Dibs."

Without warning, he jumped from the tree into the middle of the complex. For an instant, the enmy nin just stared at him, before he was impaled with hundreds of kunai and shuriken.

Their attacks were wasted thoug, as they impacted with a log. The real naruto was in the air, making handseals.

**Kit form: Fire bombs!**

Small fireballs erupted from his fingers and landed in the mass of ninjas, exploding when they contacted with anything. Blood and body parts flew everywhere, as most of the ninjas were unable to get away. Smiling grimly, Naruto ducked under one ninja that had charged him, and then brought his foot up sharply, snapping his neck.

Spinning, he caught an arm that held a kunai and broke it, before sending the nin flying into a huddle of his fellow sound ninjas.

Several ninjas leaped into the air to attack, only to fall victim to the shock blade attack. Unlike the ANBU though, these ninjas were cut apart.

Right as he landed, Naruto was broadsided, heavily. He flew into a tree, snapping its trunk in two. Hinata and Sakura, still shocked by the slaughter, screamed out when Naruto was hit. But when the dust cleared, there was no one there, not even a corpse.

Heero laughed, the sound hollow and metallic. "So, the ninja has some speed. Well, it won't save him for long." The armored man took a step forward… and was slammed by Naruto, who had launched himself from a tree. Heero groaned, giving Naruto time for another attack.

Spinning, the boy kicked out, his foot connecting with Heero's head. There was an audible snapping sound, as the man's neck was shattered. Landing, Naruto glanced at the remaining sound-nin. "if you value your lives, you'll leave now. If I ever see any of you in another attack involving the sound, I'll kill you."

The girls had never seen so many people run that quickly.

Naruto clucked his tongue, before bending down to remove the man's helmet. Also, he took with him the head protectors of the nin he had killed. After all, he was running low on cash.

Sakura and Hinata hung back dejectedly. Naruto had just killed almost 50 nins, not including their target, achieved the goal of the mission, and was happily making his way back to Konoha, all in under 15 minutes. It was inhuman.

However, each girl was having different thoughts as to what they had witnessed. Sakura was scared shitless. She had seen a boy she had not only ignored, but also belittled, abused, and outright beat on, kill 50 people, without a single regretful glance. As scared as she was, she was also curious as to how much he had managed to change.

Hinata wasn't scared, so much as had a deep respect on her crush now. Somewhere, in the back of her head, a tiny voice told her that were she to marry him, their kids would be just as strong. She blushed at the thought, but entertained them nonetheless.

-1 week later-

All of the girls gathered at their customary meeting place in the woods. They had found this clearing two years ago, when they had gone on a joint mission to escort some merchants. It was relatively small, but had a homey feel to it. It was ringed by a perfect circle of trees, with a small creek running through one portion of it.

The girls all sat cross-legged in a circle, as was customary. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Temari, were all there to discuss their new favorite topic. Naruto.

"He's changed a lot over the last 4 years. He's much stronger." Said Temari. Hinata and Sakura snorted in unison. "You wouldn't believe how strong. We were with him on his first mission since coming back, and he killed 50 sound nin, and their boss. With ease."

A loud whistle resounded. "Damn," said Tenten, "How god is his weaponry?" Ino smirked, "he could give you a run for your money, Tenten. He hit every target, dead center, when it was being _thrown in the air_. And let's not forget his ninjutsu."

Sakura looked at her oddly. "Why, what's up with his ninjutsu?" Temari spoke up again, "He and his clone both used the rasengan, and created a crater a hundred feet wide, and more than ten feet deep. His taijutsu skills are amazing too. I'd say he could kill a person with a single, well-aimed punch. His body is as hard as rock."

Hinata decided to chime in, "I can attest tothat, when he first got here, I nearly broke my hand when I punched him. fuckin' hurt."

The girls giggled as Hinata shook her hand, putting on a sour face as she remembered the pain. "But seriously," stated a recovered Temari, "I defenitely think he's eligible boyfriend material." 4 ayes chimed in response.

The forest suddenly went very quiet. "Wait a minute. We can't _all_ like him, can we?" Tenten scratched her head. "Well this sucks. Apparently we do. Rats, I really didn't want to kill any of you." This caused an outraged response, as every girl save Hinata started screaming at Tenten. However, the Hyuuga girl saved her energy for a better use, thinking.

Just as things started to get violent, she spoke up. "I have a solution." Instantly, the fighting stopped. Temari released her hold on Sakura's hair. "You do?" Hinata nodded. "it's very simple. We share him."


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto

Chapter 5

"WHAT!"

Hinata shrugged. "What? It's simple, effective, and this way, we don't have to kill each other to have him." Sakura turned red, either from anger or embarrassment, "Share him? well, it won't matter with me. He hates me, and I can understand it, given the way I treated him before he left." Ino walked up to the saddened girl, and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure e'll forgive you eventually."

"Actually, he's still hurting inside." The girls whirled as one to face the newcomer. She was of average height, with red hair, tanned skin, and a body that made the others green with jealousy. She was wearing a red and gold kimono that accented her ruby eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Temari shouted, drawing her fan. The girl chuckled. "There's no need for that, I am completely powerless. But believe me, you know who I am, or rather, you know of me."

Sakura blinked, "Huh?" The girl sighed and sat down. "Remember the stories that your parents told you when you were young, about a demon fox attacking the village? I was that fox." This immediately caused ten thousand questions to be thrown at her, until "QUIET!" instant silence.

"Thank you. Now, as I was saying, I was the demon fox. I was not a male, but obviously a female. The reason I attacked the village was because a few leaf shinobi had managed to summon me and wanted me to submit to them. I refused, and the killed my family." Te girl sniffled a little, but continued, "After that, I went berserk, and killed the shinobi, and eventually went after the city. As you know, I was stopped by the 4th hokage, but what you don't know is that he didn't kill me, he sealed me away. Into a newborn baby, his own son. At first, I railed against my prison, but after a few years, I knew it was futile. Therefore, I used my energy for somewhat more constructive purposes. Such as thinking on how I could make my carrier stronger, seeing as his strength and intelligence reflects back on me. I guess you could call it pride." The girl looked as if she was in thought, then continued, "Anyways, everything was changed 4 years ago. That mission to go collect that Uchiha bastard nearly killed him. did you know that the only thing keeping him alive was my chakra? Uchiha drove his hand completely through Naruto. And yet, he still managed to bring your precious Sasuke back, if a little bruised up. And how did you thank him?"

kyuubi paused as if waiting for an answer, "You attacked him! when he was on the brink of death! He used so much of my chakra that if he had used just a little bit more to defend himself, he would have died! That's when I told him that he should leave the village, and never come back, but, being the stubborn lovable fool that he is, only complied with the former. However, I can't complain, seeing as it's made him extremely powerful." Suddenly the girl smirked. "You know, when he and I merged, I had full access to his memories. The only thing yhe could think of was getting stronger so he could beat Sasuke and show you just how shallow he was. Apparently, Uchiha did that on his own. but now I'm ranting."

Standing, kyuubi looked Ino and Sakura in the eye. "You two are the ones that hurt him the most. Near the beginning of his training, he collapsed into tears. I told him that it was okay, that when we were done, no one would be able to hurt him again, but then he told me that he wasn't hurting outside, he was hurting inside."

"So, that night, while he was asleep, I went through his mind. On the top, he had happy memories, memories of him and his first teacher, Iruka, memories of his accomplishments, things that anyone should have. But underneath that… sadness. Remorse, depression, anger, and once, near suicidal."

"After reviewing these thoughts, I decided that I would do all I could to protect him, comfort him, and take care of him. but I noted that as time progressed, I began to feel attached to him, at first it was sisterly, then it became something stronger."

Kyuubi stood and stared unblinking into each of the girls' eyes in turn. "If I hear of ANY of you hurting him, for whatever reason, I will kill you, even if my powers have gone to Naruto. And if I am unable to do so, than I will enlist the help of Tsunade, who now thinks of the boy as a younger brother."

There was silence, before Hinata asked, "Umm… excuse me, but, if you were in Naruto, how did you get out?" kyuubi smiled, and pointed to the sky, where a red moon hung in the failing light. "With the help of Naruto's doppelganger, who has his own power, I was able to free myself from Naruto. As of now, I am as real as the rest of you, even to the point of needing sleep and food. I even have the parts for being with Naruto correct."

The thing that shocked the girls the most wasn't that kyuubi had said the last statement, but that she had said it without blushing, as if she were determined to have him. "By the way, I don't care if we share him. I don't get jealous if I know the other girl loves him and he loves her. Besides, this gives him a day of rest." She giggled conspiratadly.

Looking at the red-haired girl oddly, Sakura asked, "Do you think that he would ever forgive me, much less let me do… that to him?"

Kyuubi shrugged. "while in his mind, I felt that his hate towards you had dimmed quite a lot when he hit you. He even felt a little remorse. I'd say you have a chance, if you worked at it."

Kyuubi seemed to think again, before saying, "Oh, and whatever you do, don't let yourself get seriously injured or killed. I'm pretty sure Naruto would go on a killing spree if you did that, and considering the level he's at right now, he would kill a lot of people before being stopped. If he could be stopped."

Naruto sneezed again. Irritated, he looked again in the mirror for any signs of a cold, as he had been sneezing for an hour straight. Seeing none, yet again, he sighed and settled back into bed.

Kyuubi snuck through the window into Naruto's bedroom, where the boy was sleeping. Smiling at how peaceful he was, she started to head out, until an evil thought crossed her mind. Untying her kimono, she slid into the small bed next to Naruto.

She cried a happy tear when, in his sleep, he wrapped his arm around her.

Naruto woke the next day, mind foggy from sleep. Blinking it away, he extricated himself from the girl sleeping next to him, and sat up.

There he stayed, blinking slowly. Shrugging, he got out of bed, thinking that the girl was simply a figment of his imagination.

Yawning, he turned on the shower all the way to hot, with the dim hope it would wake him up. Stepping into the blasting water, he held his head against the wall, letting the water from the overhead spout wash over him. Slowly, he began to wake up, joining the day.

Had he not been at least semi-awake, he would have missed the fact that someone had entered the shower with him.

Chakra flaring, he began making handseals as he turned…and stopped as he was faced by a very beautiful red haired girl. She lifted an eyebrow, before turning her back to him and closing the shower door. That was when a very important fact occurred to Naruto. He was in a shower, naked, with an equally nude red haired girl.

Noticing this, he said the most sophisticated thing that he could think of at that moment, "Uhh…." Kyuubi turned back to face him and laughed at the dumb look on Naruto's face. "What? I need to take a shower too, you know." "uhh…." "Anyways, it conserves water and time."

Finally, Naruto found his vocabulary, 'What the hell are you doing naked in a shower with me, Kyu!" She looked at him with eyes that made his hormones run faster than an Olympic runner on PSP. "Why, I'm keeping you company. Turn around, I'm going to wash your back."

When he was done, Naruto bolted from the shower and got dressed as quickly as possible. grabbing a piece of toast, he opted for leaping out the window, as it was a much faster way of getting away from Kyuubi, who Naruto had definitely surmised as being in heat.

Landing hard, he ran like a madman towards the training fields.

Kyuubi's smile reached her ears when she stepped out of the apartment building. Instantly she was surrounded by 5 other girls, all of whom had one question on their minds, "HOW WAS HE?"

Kyubi giggled. "well, I managed to slip into his bed when he was asleep, but all he did was put his arm around me. This morning, I went into his shower, but he was way too modest to do anything. But let me tell you something." She leaned in close, "When we do get him, you're definitely going to enjoy it! It's like the guy has a friggin' pipe!"

Naruto sneezed again. Shaking it off, he hit the tree again, harder. _Why the hell would kyuubi do something like that? that's totally opposite of what she's usually like._

_**She did it beause she loves you, you moron. **_

What? There's no way she could love me! I mean, she is, or rather was, a demon. It would be too weird.

**She doesn't seem to think so. she told me so right before she split from us. Why the hell do you think she wanted a human body, you dumbass?**

_Posterity?_

Naruto knew it was weak, but it was all he had.

**Not quite. Oh, count yourself lucky that she loves you too, because from what she told me, those other 5 girls have it for you too, and kyuubi's willing to share.**

That threw Naruto's punch off, and he ended up breaking a knuckle. Cursing, he took the injured digit with his other hand and cracked it back into place. "What the hell does that damn doppelganger think he know?" Sounding very lee-ish, Naruto added, "If it's true, I will go a week shirtless with war paint on me for two weeks."

**_I'll hold you to that._**

6 girls were waiting for Naruto as he walked through the doors. The moment he saw them, he froze, a look of horror spreading on his face. Kyuubi smiled and walked up to him, "Hmm, it looks like you're sweaty from training. You should go relax in the hot springs." Hinata, Temari, Tenten, Ino, and a nervous Sakura all nodded sagely, and grabbed his arms, literally dragging our suffering hero to said destination.

Naruto slid into the water, sighing as he did so. strangely enough, the hot springs were totally devoid of any life, which made Naruto more than a little curious, but he shrugged it off as something to dig into later. Smiling, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back, enjoying the warmth of the water.

Generally, when one is in a hot springs, one is supposed to relax. Now, for the first minute or two, Naruto _was_ relaxed, but after that, things went downhill, fast. His eye twitched when he heard one splash on his side of the springs, then another, and another, and a 4th and a 5th. When it stopped, he began to get a _really_ bad feeling.

Slowly he sat up, and cautiously opened one eye. It was as he feared. 5 girls all sat in the water in front of him, grinning like Cheshire cats. _Wait a minute, that's only 5, where's…_ two hands pushed him from behind into the middle of the pool, where he was forced to stand to maintain his usual standard of breathing air.

Reacting on instinct, Naruto performed seal so quickly that the girls weren't even able to see them, and with a flash, he disappeared.

Kyuubi frowned, "Well, that's not playing fair." Sighing, she continued, "oh well, we had better let him think things over. In the meantime, here's a chart of who gets to be with him when."

Naruto reappeared in his home and quickly changed into a spare set of clothed he had. He was severely shaken, the proof of which currently shaking badly.

Suddenly, a wave of anger came over him, and he felt the need to hit something. Teleporting again, he appeared in the training field, and immediately took to bashing trees.

Whole chunks of wood were gouged from the trees as he punched and kicked them with all of his fury. Within 5 minutes, he had managed to topple almost seven trees, but was still extremely pissed off. That was when he spotted the boulders lying not far off.

He wrapped his hands tightly, and began to beat on the boulder. With each contact, his hits seemed to become stronger, until his attacks actually began to crack, and then shatter the huge stone. With one final heave he hit, his hand going straight through, neatly splitting the rock in half.

Panting, he sat on his heels and rested. Already, he felt much better, and was able to think clearly. "What the hell do they think they're doing? When I first got here, no one save for Hinata seemed to even acknowledge my existence. Now they're throwing themselves at me."

Groaning, he fell backwards to lie in the grass and stare at the clouds. "This is a sick joke they're playing, and I won't be a part of it." Mentally congratulating himself on his resolution, he got up and teleported to his apartment. Even though it was only 5, he was tired from his exercise, and decided to go to bed early.


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto

Chapter 6

Naruto heard the person enter through the window and slip into bed next to him, pulling him tightly against her. Clenching his teeth, he quickly performed a replacement jutsu, and then made his way to his living room, where he slept on the floor. The sleeping girl had no idea what happened.

Unfortunately, his plan was a double-edged sword, as he was woken by a shrill scream, coming from his bedroom. Yawning, he shrugged, and got up, his back stiff from the hard floor. Cracking his various joints, he grinned and deliberately walked into his room, where a very startled Temari was lying next to a log. "Have a nice sleep?" He asked, pulling off his shirt.

Temari didn't say anything, not that she was able to, as drool was dripping from the corner of her mouth.

Chuckling, Naruto grabbed a towel and went into his bathroom for a shower. He didn't seem to notice when Temari joined him, but instead kept washing himself, whistling a tune only he knew. The only indication that he was aware someone of the opposite gender was in the shower with him was that he never turned to face her.

By the time Temari came out of the shower, Naruto had already dressed and left. The frustrated girl pouted, before dressing and leaving the apartment.

"Well?" Temari frowned. "he's either gay, or he's not interested. He used the substitution technique on me last night." The girls looked affronted. "Or maybe he's _trying_ not to think about you." Jirayai stepped out from the shadows, where he had watched the interactions between them, a rare look of seriousness on his face.

Kyuubi looked at the man warily. "what are you doing here, pervert? We won't have a show for you." Jirayai laughed, a short, barking laugh. "Do you really think that's all I think about? You're more narrow-minded than I thought. I've been watching Naruto for the past two days. Let me tell you something, that boy is trying his hardest not to think about you. He's got something on his mind, and none of you will ever be able to get close to him until he works whatever problems he's having out."

Kyuubi frowned, "But when I was fused with him, I could read all of his thoughts. There was nothing there that indicated he would act like this." Jirayai chuckled, "Do you really think that you were able to read all of his thoughts? The human mind is way too complex to be able to read all of his thoughts. If I were you, I would try to help him. I have an idea about what it would be, but I won't tell you what it is exactly, just that it happened 4 years ago." With that he disappeared.

Kyuubi frowned, but then something caught her attention. Sakura had stiffened up, and tears were about to fall from her eyes. "It's me, he's mad at me for doing… that to him."

Naruto took the mission from Tsunade, skimming over it quickly. He stared at his surrogate big sister with a questioning eye, "Are you sure? Usually people who get these kind of mission go with somebody else. Besides, I doubt I could change his mind."

Tsunade smiled at her brother's humility. "Don't worry, you'll do fine. Besides, to send other people would be a liability we can't afford. You move faster when you're alone and don't have to hold back for someone slower. Now get going, before I sick Gai on you with his youth speech."

Naruto bolted from the room.

At his apartment, he packed lightly, ot even carrying a spare set of clothes, just weapons. Then he got into his battle outfit.

The battle outfit was just what it sounded like, a uniform designed specifically for combat. It consisted of baggy black pants that tucked into calf-high combat boots, two belts that hung loosely from a main one, each holding a covered kama, one of the numerous Naruto had trained with in the cave. The top was a form-fitting muscle shirt that was hardened to the point of being like rock, yet was still quite flexable. It was black, with four spikes of red, two coming from the shoulders down, and the last two from the outside hips up. On the back was naruto's new symbol, a spiral with nine tails fanning out from it like pinwheels, with a foxhead in the exact middle of the spiral.

Naruto's biceps were bare, so that his tattoos would be within easy access. His hands were covered by black fingerless gloves, each knuckle covered by a steel plate.

Lastly, his forehead protector. This he wore like a cap, the black cloth covering the whole top of his head, leaving just a blond ponytail jutting out.

Jumping from his window, he landed hard and ran in the streets towards the gates, ignoring the looks the villagers gave him. He waved to the guards, the same ones he had scared senseless when he had first arrived, and made his way into the forest, slowly going into higher branches as he traveled, until he was jumping from the crown of one tree to the other.

The chakra signature of his prey was incredible, and it was only getting stronger as he approached. Grinning, he took one last leap and landed with a skid in front of his prey.

The man instantly switched on his Sharingan eye, getting into a battle stance. Naru smirked, removing the kamas from their holsters. He had chosen the weapons because they were light, fast, and had a ton of cutting power, to the point of being able to shear a limb off if a clean shot was possible. However, Naruto had no intention of crippling his opponent.

The other ninja yed the weapons with distaste, before pulling out two elongated kunai daggers, spinning each before gripping them in a back-handed grip. "So, they sent you after me. I'm not surprised, your chakra signature is several times larger than mine, but I do not intend to go down without a fight." Naruto tensed, "You could just give up, and spare me the chore of having to drag your body back to Konoha."

The ninja smirked, "I don't think so. now, shall we get started?"

The ninja launched himself at Naruto, going straight for the boy's heart. But he hit nothing but air. Looking around, he stepped aside just in time to avoid a kama slice, only to be hit by a spin-kick. The ninja grinned, he was having fun already.

Spinning the kunai he held, the ninja charged forward, his simple daggers now razor-sharp sawblades. Naruto dodged the dangerous weapons with almost silken grace, before ducking under one and punching his opponent in the jaw. The kunai flew away, one imbedding itself in a tree almost 6 inches, the other, by some weird twist of fate, impaling a bird that was flying by.

Getting back up to his feet, the ninja got back into his fighting stance. Naruto looked at him for a second before putting away his weapons and getting into his own taijutsu stance.

The two of them just stood there, staring at each other, before Naruto charged, his knee coming up towards the ninja's face. Slapping the knee away, the ninja went for a stiff-armed hit from behind. Naruto back-flipped over the arm, landing and kicking his foot out, dropping the ninja. Faster than they eye could see, Naruto pinched a nerve in the ninja's neck, knocking him out for several hours.

Picking the bosy up, Naruto slung him over his shoulder and made his way back to Konoha village.

The guards passed out when they saw who he was carrying, and Naruto laughed. He slowed his pace to a fast gait, as his cargo still had about ten hours of nap time, unless Naruto performed the counter pressure point. As Naruto walked through the village, he suddenly found himself not on the receiving end of their hatred. Instead, they cast their looks at his cargo, but most specifically, at the forehead protector, a leaf symbol with a scratch across it.

Naruto unceremoniously dumped the cargo on the floor of the hokage's office. Tsunade just gave him a look. "What?" he said, "I could have beat him up, but I thought that considering the circumstances, you might want him to show some resemblance to a human being."

Tsunade rolled her eyes, but motioned for him to proceed. Bending down, Naruto quickly pinched the same nerve he had before, and Itachi immediately leapt to his feet.

"Damn it, Naruto! You could have at least told me the hokage wanted to speak with me!" The boy grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I thought that this was a bit more fun, plus it would look suspicious for you to be walking around the village, now wouldn't it?"

itachi had to agree with that point, but was still annoyed. Scowling, he turned to Tsunade. "The Akatsuki are afraid. They haven't distributed any missions since they heard about what Naruto did to that Sound base. If it weren't for the fact that the kyuubi's power was so alluring, they would give up their hunt for him." Tsunade nodded, "That's good, it means we can actually get some work done on getting rid of Oorachimaru and Kabuto, not to mention several key Sound members." "That reminds me, when are you going to tell the village about my innocence?" Tsunade sighed, "As soon as we can get Oorachimaru to make a public confession." Naruto raised his hand, "I volunteer." Tsunade continued, "we also need a lot of teams to take out the Sound nin," "I volunteer." "And we need someone strong enough to beat the snake bastard." "I volunteer." "And lastly, we need someone to do community service around the village."

Silence. "Damn, thought I had you there, naruto." The boy grinned, "I'm not that stupid, Tsunade-chan. But seriously, I can do all of that, save perhaps the defeating sound nin, that part might be a little difficult to do on my own."

Tsunade nodded, "I figured as much, that's why it's going to be a joint operation between the sand and leaf villages." Naruto smirked, "Really? I wonder if Gaara ever got his demon under control. If not, I've got something that will help." The evil look on Naruto's face signified that whatever he had would not be good, either for the sand nin or his resident demon, the two older nins weren't sure.

Itachi stretched, "Oh well, I better go get myself a nice cell, as the village now knows I'm here." Naruto grinned again, and stepped closer to the man. Itachi got a frightened look on his face, "No, oh no, not agai…uhh." The man fell unconscious into Naruto's waiting arms. The boy grinned, "I just love doing that."

Thw whole village was in an uproar, mainly because Itachi had been returned, but also because he had been defeated by the 'demon child'. There were rumors that the seal had been broken and that Naruto would now kill all of them, but none of it was spoken aloud, but Naruto could still hear them, his heightened senses allowing him to hear them as clear as day.

"There he is!"

"The demon child!"

"he brought back Itachi! He must have released the demon!"

"I bet you the two of them are in it together."

"Yeah, they could kill us all, we should notify the hokage."

Growling, Naruto walked over to the villagers and looked them square in the eye. "You know, it's not polite to talk about someone when they have their back turned." One of the villagers snarled and punched Naruto in the stomach. Hard.

A loud cracking rent the air, and the man screeched, holding his now crippled hand. "You moron, I'm wearing armor. Not that someone as weak as you would have hurt me anyways." Another villager punched him, this time in the face. Naruto's head didn't budge.

Irritated, he swatted the hand away before lifting the villager by his shirt. "next time I hear you talking about me behind my back, I will request a one on one fight with you, which would be granted by the hokage, who will agree because she will learn that you were breaking the third's law. So either way, you're dead or probably crippled."

He threw the villager down on the ground, before resuming his walk home.

Yawning, he unlocked his door, throwing his keys on the chipped and unfurnished table beside his door. He hung his kamas up, before collapsing on his bed, instantly asleep.

Again, a girl crept into his bedroom through the window, but she was cautious, making sure that this Naruto was the real one. Though, had Naruto been awake, he wouldn't have cared, as he had been exhausted. Smiling, the girl slipped under the covers, holding him to her.

Naruto woke up at exactly the same time he had the previous days, 6 o'clock. Ever since he had come back from the cave, his body had become a clock. No matter how little or how much sleep he got, he would always wake up at 6.

Blinking his eyes, he sat up, none too surprised to find an arm around his waist. This time it was Tenten. Just as he decided that she looked awfully nice lying there, she snored.

Naruto gave her an odd look, before taking his usual shower, finally glad for the lack of female accompanyment. Changing into his battle uniform again, he strapped on his kamas, but also added a long staff with a miniature sword blade on it, which he referred to as a sword-lance.

He gave one last look at Tenten before heading out into the daylight. 5 other pairs of eyes twinkled as he made his way towards the hokage's office.

Once she heard the door close, Tenten sat straight up. Pulling on a shirt over her undergarments, she unlocked the door, admitting the other 5 girls in.

The girls, save for Temari, Kyuubi, and Tenten, were disgusted by the apartment. It was immaculately clean, but the room itself was decaying. There were only 5 rooms, one of which was closed.

The bedroom was clean, save for rumpled sheets, but was almost as bare as a bone. Above the bed hung a flag with the Konoha leaf symbol on it, and next to the bed there was a small, ratty sidetable that held an alarm clock that looked as if it had been put together from spare parts.

The bathroom was also clean, and still held some steam, but it was clear that it was in desperate need of repair. The pipes were rusting, the tiling cracked, and the caulking crumbling.

The kitchen was even worse. The counters were clean, but cracked, misshapen, and off-level. The floor had tiles that had come apart from the others, causing dangerous sharp points. A single table stood in the room, chipped, stained, and with one leg broken.

The living room held only a mat and a crate. The wallpaper was peeling, and the ceiling waterstained. The carpet looked as if someone had taken a knife to it, padding sticking out of the various openings in the material.

No one knew what was in the last room. But with careful tinkering and patience, Tenten was able to unlock it with a hairpin and a kunai. Their eyes widened when they saw inside.

It was easily the best room in the apartment, not only clean, but pristine, even with the cracked walls. Inside the room was numerous shelves, all holding various toys and pictures. The toys were dirty and broken, as if they had been taken from a dumpster, and the pictures were all blurred with water damage, or had most of them burned away.

What was the worst of it was that Naruto had taken these, and acted like they were his, writing things like 'Uzumaki family' or 'Family vacation' on the pictures. In the exact center of the room, there was a small tree in a pot, with various wishes written on it. All of the wish cards were the same, _I wish for a family._

Quietly, the girls left the room, locking it as they did. Then they held a meeting in Naruto's bedroom.

"How could anyone live like this? It's disgusting!" Ino shot a death glare at a curious mouse. Kyuubi frowned, "In his memories, that room was one thing I had never seen. I wonder what else he is hiding." Tenten grabbed the front of her borrowed shirt, inhaling the scent. "Well, he didn't use the replacement jutsu last night, so I think he may be starting to warm up to us." Temari snorted, "Still, I think it's vile that he should have to live in a place like this." "It's the only place he had." Said Kyuubi, "The third paid for the rent, his clothes, his food, everything. Naruto had no way of making any money until he became a ninja. Even now, he's so desperate to leave this place that he will take any mission, just for the pay. With his new abilities, he might even be able to do 2 or 3 A-ranked missions a day." Hinata spoke up after that, "Well, I saw him training in the forest after we had our 'fun' at the hot springs. He split a boulder in half cleanly with a single punch. Right after he leveled seven trees with muscle alone."

Sakura choked. "He's unbelievably strong, and it seems that he just keeps getting stronger." "he is." Said Kyuubi. "Every week or so, his body absorbs more of my chakra. Even now, as powerful as he is, he will become more so. think of my chakra as a lake. Well, Naruto has only absorbed a few ponds' worth of chakra compared to that lake. He won't be at full power until he's 20, in which case, only a demon wuld prove any challenge for him. as I told him, I have a lot of enemies, so it's possible that they will come after him once he absorbs all of my chakra."

Naruto took the scrolls, waving goodbye to Tsunade. He had been given two A-rank missions, both worth quite a lot of money, but not enough to buy his own home. Walking back to his apartment, he grabbed a few kunai and shuriken, and also took with him a katana. The sword was sheathed in a steel sheath colored black, with red demonic lines running over it. The sword itself was 3 feet long and razor sharp; you couldn't hold the blade even lightly without at least cutting yourself. An elongated fox head adorned each side of the blade.

Re-reading the scrolls, Naruto tried to decide which one to do first. The first one was the destruction of a small Sound jounin watch post several miles to the east, while another was the assassination of two of the Sound's top 2 lieutenants.

Naruto decided to go for the assassination first, mainly due to the fact that he could get rid of them much more quickly and easily.

As he ran, he sniffed the air, searching for any sign of his prey. There; the scent of snakes. Baring his elongated canines in a snarl, he leaped from the trees into the road where two sound nins were walking. Before the men could react, naruto threw two shuriken at them. One wasn't fast enough, and got the shuriken in his leg. The other nin simply side-stepped the shuriken. Naruto grinned, he had yet to fight against a jounin in real combat.

Drawing his kamas, he charged the jounin, scoring a nick on the nin's leg and arm. The jounin leapt away, and activated his cursed seal. Naruto smiled, before charging him again, this time with about half of his speed. The sound nin attempted a few handseals before stopping and falling to the ground. Losing your head can do that to a person.

Placing the severed head in a sack, he turned to the other nin, who was trying to hobble away. A gust of wind, and the nin's head flew from his body.

The outpost was easy, too. The most they managed to do was slice a gash in his arm, which healed quickly enough. Bagging the heads, he made his way to Konoha.

At this point, the poor guards had had enough. Not only did this boy scare the crap out of them when he had first arrived, he had brought Itachi in, and was now whistling while swinging a bag whose bottom was soaked in blood.

Naruto cheerfully laid the bag on the desk of the clerk, who stared at it as if it was diseased. "Very…well. Here's your payment." Naruto took the money and walked out of the room. The man delicately tried to lift the bag of heads, but it weighed almost a hundred pounds.

s


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto

Chapter 8

Naruto set his weapons up on the wall, and then stripped to his waist. He was starting to get annoyed at the simplicity of the missions he was getting. He wanted hard, no, _impossible, _ missions. Hw anted something that would challenge him. sighing, he lay back in his bed, ignoring Sakura who slipped in next to him.

Little did Naruto know that his opportunity to push himself was coming, fast.

A week after receiving his two a-ranked missions, Naruto had managed to complete 9 b-ranked and 13 a-ranked. That was more than 3 missions a day, and yet Naruto was barely winded.

He had become infamous, even among the jounin. Not only by the sheer number of missions he did, but also by the efficiency in which he did them. He was now becoming known as the 'quick-kill' ninja. Miracles of miracles, the villagers began to soften their eyes towards him, something for which Naruto was immensely grateful.

However, there _was_ one thing that he was unable to control. Taking a small break from his training, Naruto sat down underneath a tree, Kit, who had almost grown to be the size of a Labrador, lying down beside him, headv resting on the ninja's lap. Just as he was about to fall asleep, however, a shadow fell across his eyes.

Looking up, he found himself staring at an entirely too calm Hinashi Hyuuga. Behind the man was a long line of adults, the parents of Tenten, Ino, and Sakura. He visibly gulped.

Hinashi smiled an unpleasant smile. "It has come to our attention that our girls have been disappearing from their rooms at night, and hace recently formed a fan club, with you as their main attraction." Naruto frowned, "That's truly unfair, you realize that, right? I did nothing to egg the girls on, nor to hold them off. I really don't know why they're doing this, but it doesn't matter to me, because before I left, they did nothing for me, save for your daughter, sir. All of the others just abused me, taunted me. If they truly want me to show affection for them, then they will have to prove themselves to me, Sakura most of all."

Hinashi nodded sagely before responding, "Good point. However, that's not the only thing that we're worried about." He flashed out a kunai. "We really don't care to have our daughters hanging around someone who has the beast inside of them."

At that statement, Naruto burst out into laughter. "Is that what you are worried about? Too bad, I thought it was going to be something serious." Hinashi growled and threw his kunai, only to have Naruto catch it between two fingers, 2 inches from his left eye. "Try that again," Growled the former vessel, "And I'll kill you. Kyuubi is no longer a threat." The people gasped, and murmuring began. "I have absorbed her power, and now she is just like any of you, save for some reason she has a crush on me." Hinashi blinked, "Her?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly, "Uh…yeah. You know that red-haired girl that showed up last full moon? That's Kyuubi. She's just like any human now, save for the fact that she doesn't have any chakra."

Hinashi blinked again, "Okaaay. But still, we feel we must protect our daughters honor. The males each challenge you to a fight. Taijutsu only, if you win, then that girl will be allowed to date you, if she wants, and you oblige. If you lose, you have to stay away from them forever, understood?"

Naruto nodded, and gently removed Kit's head before standing and stretching. His companion looked at him sleepily, and then at the other humans, before standing and walking over to Naruto.

Naruto noticed a tugging on his pants, and looked down to see Kit. Smilng, Naruto kneeled, and his face was assaulted by kit, who attempted to lick every surface. Laughing, Naruto pulled the anxious fox away before hugging him and standing again.

He turned to face the parents, cracking his knuckles. "So who's first?"

6 girls watched anxiously as they saw their crush standing across from ino's father. "I hope he'll be okay." Whispered Hinata, "My father is incredibly strong." "Mine is too." Replied Sakura. Kyuubi just smiled. "Don't worry, he'll be fine. If anything, you should be worried for your fathers. I've seen the boy when he's really training. Your dads don't have anything on him."

Indeed, Ino's dad was taken out by a single punch, right after the man had severely hurt his hand punching Naruto's armor.

The same happened with Tenten and Sakura's fathers. But Naruto had never really been worried about them. He was worried about Hinashi.

The two of them faced off, standing stock still, until a leaf floated between them. The moment the leaf touched the ground, the two charged at each other.

A huge gust of wind blew the leaves away from the point of contact. As the wall of foliage cleared, Naruto and Hinashi could be seen, exchanging punches and kicks fiercely, each hit sounding like a bat hitting a piece of tanned leather.

Gripping a wrist that held a kunai meant for his shoulder, Naruto twisted it around, bringing it behind Hinashi's back. The man grit his teeth, but never cried out. Naruto smiled at that. he was beginning to like the man. But then something unexpected happened.

Four kunai went sailing through the air, straight for the dueling pair. Thinking quickly, Naruto tripped Hinashi's feet out from under him and intercepted the kunai. With his chest.

Staring at the weapons that were buried hilt-deep in him, Naruto crooked an eyebrow, before raising his attention towards the forest. It was then that his senses caught something. "Get down!" He yelled to the family members as he pulled the weapons from his chest while charging towards the woods.

A single bird flew from the woods, before…CRASH! A huge tiger, a hundred feet tall, with gleaming orange eyes, bounded from the trees, growling. It instantly regarded the lesser threats, going for them.

Naruto shot a disgusted look at the tiger before disappearing, reappearing on top of the tiger's head. The tiger roared, outraged that a mortal would have the audacity to ride him. foaming at the mouth, the demon slammed itself into a cliff in an attempt to dislodge the pesky human, but naruto held on for all he was worth.

Angrily, the tiger pawed at itself, finally pulling the human away. The demon laughed at its assumed victory, before turning its attention back to the innocents, all of whom were far too badly inured to retaliate.

The tiger licked its chops, stalking forward. His progress was halted however, when something gripped its tail.

Growling, it turned to face the pest it thought it had eliminated. Then its eyes widened. Naruto was glowing red, chakra radiating from the boy like he was a light.

A popping sound filled the air, and then a small rip, as four tails burst from the bottom of his spine, waving and twirling, as if they had a mind of their own.

Naruto bared his teeth, showing his slightly elongated canines. Releasing the tail, he leaped into the air, hands moving faster than any eye could see.

Kit form: Demon Javelin 

A large spear of red chakra burst from Naruto's hands, impaling the tiger demon. Roaring in pain, the tiger attempted to swat Naruto, who only twisted in midair, avoiding the attack easily. Snarling, Naruto began to charge his Rasengan, sending so much chakra into it that it became something totally different. The wind was still there, but somehow, it took on a…sharper quality.

Naruto landed on the head of the tiger demon, while at the same time releasing his new Rasengan into the demon's skull. For a split second, time stood still, until a burst of light erupted from the tiger demon's neck, before moving in random arcs. Anywhere the light hit, that area dissolved, leaving nothing behind. The tiger managed one last final roar of defiance before the rest of it was swept away.

Naruto landed hard, his impact leaving a good-sized crater in the ground. As he lay there, another popping sound was heard, and a 5th tail erupted from him. exhausted, he looked at his backside before groaning, "Just bloody great."

The girls were frightened half to death, but not for their parents. They ran down from the hill they had been hiding behind, scared that their crush was permanently hurt, or worse.

Kyuubi smiled a knowing smile, before letting the other 5 girls run up to Naruto. She on the other hand, went to the parents. Hinashi was still wide-eyed over the battle, and he failed to notice kyuubi until she poked him in the forehead. "What?" He asked, his voice still light from awe. Kyuubi chuckled, "So now you know what my former vessel is capable of, ne?" That grabbed his attention.

He looked at her with shock on his face. "you're the demon fox?" "Former demon fox. Now I'm Kyuubi, or preferably Kyu. And yes, what Naruto said was true, I have no chakra. However, I think you are all lucky to have your girls all crushing after a man like him. despite what this village has done to him, he still cares for it. And you should be relieved, there's not much out there that can kill him, and that's at im having 5 tails. When he has all 9, he will be unstoppable."

Hinashi looked slightly worried at this news. Kyuubi laughed, "Not to worry. He won't go berserk and start killing everyone. However, I must ay that him absorbing my power has put him through some… changes."

Ino's father walked up, clutchinghis swollen hand. "Please elaborate."

Kyuubi sighed, "It's simple really. In short, Naruto will become slightly more aggressive, but only in battle. He may do some things that are… violent, even compared to what ninja battles are usually like. With that, he has also gained the fierce sense of protectiveness of his family, and their loved ones. That was what happened with the tiger demon. And last but not least…" Here she paused. Hinashi and the others looker at her dangerously. "Well, you're not going to like this, but… he needs to form a harem so that his clan will live on, as well as my power. The power he has right now… it's only half of what he'll have when he's 20. or, at the rate he's growing, maybe 18. you remember ow powerful I was when I attacked your village? And you remember howpowerful Naruto was before he tapped into my strength? Well, add those two together. That mixed with the abilities from his wives, will cause his children to be uniquely powerful. They would surpass the uchiha clan, and especially the hyuuga clan. The last part wouldn't matter however, because if Naruto marries the girls, that would make Hinata a Uzumaki."

It was kind of funny watching the fathers turning different colors, all due to kyu's suggestion. "A Harem!" Sputtered Hinashi. Kyuubi nodded sagely. "But that's… that's…so wrong!" kyuubi croked an eyebrow. "And how is that so wrong. I must say, compared to you humans, demons are far more civilized. We accept things like this. If more than one female loves a male, then the male will simply take them all as mates. It even works the other way around."

Hinashi and the others got a deadpanned look on their faces, but kyuubi ignored them as the girlswere bringing Naruto over.

The boy was exhausted, his bout with Hinashi had worn him out slightly, and then he had defeated a tiger demon, not something that a boy his age should be doing all in one day.

Currently, he was asleep, his 5 tails wagging lazily behind him. Hinata and temari held him up by one arm, while Ino and Sakur had him by the other. Tenten was busy playing with Naruto's tails, oohing and ahhhing as she poked them.

Kyu rolled her eyes. "I've got some news." Setting their crush down lightly, the girls all stood at attention, save occasionally Tenten, who kp nudging a tail with her foot. "Naruto, after having absorbed my power, will begin to undergo changes, most notably of which, are the tails that Tenten is so enamored with. However, that is not the end. It suddenly occurred to me while watching him fight that Naruto has no family, and therefore is the last of his clan. Now who knows what horrors our man could face while on a mission? That is why I have suggested we become his harem."

If anything, the girls were the total opposites of their parents. They all cheered, high-fived, and exclaimed to one another that they wouldn't have to kill each other. Hinashi and the males sweat-dropped, while the elder females had flowers in their eyes at the prospect of planning a wedding.

Everyone quieted when Naruto groaned. Yawning heavily, the boy sat up, looked blearily at the group of people, before pulling Hinashi's kunai from his pocket. Without warning, he stabbed his hand, not even flinching at the pain.

Flinging the knife away, he smeared the blood on the dragon tattoo on his arm, muttering a few words.

A large puf of smoke later, and a gigantic Chinese dragon floated in mid-air above them. Looking down at the boy, the dragon snorted, small mushrooms of flame erupting from his nostrils.

I leave you alone for a few months, and look what happens to you, you get your ass kicked.

Naruto scowled at the dragon, but it was wasted as he yawned heavily. "Shut up Pao. It wasn't my choice. A damn tiger demon attacked. Now if you don't mind, could you take me to my house? I really can't walk like this." Blinking, Naruto looked at the girls. "bring them too, if they want to come."

You should already know the answer to that one, kid.

Smiling, Naruto passed away into sleep, only to be gently picked up by Pao. The dragon looked at the girls expectantly, and was glad to see that none of them showed a hint of fear in riding him. his summoner had chosen his wives well.

Groaning, the dragon lifted into the air, and headed for his summoner's home. But he wasn't moving towards the village, he was going towards the outskirts of it, slightly off from the hokage monument.

Sakura was slightly nervous that they weren't headed for the village, so she lowered her head towards the dragons, asking, "excuse me, but isn't Naruto's apartment in the village?" The dragon chuckled.

If you can call that a home. No, we're going to his family's home, or rather, their mansion. The uzumaki clan was very well-known and wealthy before nearly being wiped out by demons. As he is the last of his clan, the mansion now belongs to him.

Sakura was confused. "But if head a mansion, why didn't ge move into it before?"

Simple, he didn't know it existed until this morning.

-Flashback-

_Naruto stared at the woman, incredulous. "I have a house?" Tsunade nodded. "it belonged to the fourth, your father." Naruto grit his teeth. "Then why the hell did he old man have me live in that dump I call my apartment?" Tsunade sighed, "Because he wanted you to learn to fend for yourself. Besides, at least now you don't have to have all of your girlfriends come over just a day at a time."_

_-End flashback-_

Uzumaki manor was somewhat conservative, compared to the Uchiha and Hyuuga estates. It had a front lawn that measured a full square acre, with bright, neatly trimmed grass, with flowers and numerous trees lining the path up to the manor.

The manor was three stories tall, made of red oak that had been specially varnished to avoid warping and cracks. A grand staircase led up to the double doors of the house, which were made of black oak. Right inside the house was the foyer, which had wood flooring, with various rugs covering it. Huge wall windows were situated on either side of the double doors, revealing the beautiful front lawn. The ceiling of the foyer was about 30 feet, and tapestries hung from the very top, all the way to the bottom, depicting various members of the Uzumaki clan. All f them were woven with stunning beauty, but by far, the greatest one was of the fourth.

The main body of the tapestry was a deep blood red, with a few strands of silver strung skillfully through the weaves to make the picture look as if it were alive.

When one got closer and really inspected the tapestry, one would see that the blond hair of the fourth was actuall thread made from real gold, and his white robes were of platinum. It was apparent that cost had been no object when it had been made.

Pao set the kids down, just as their parents arrived, winded after trying to keep up with the flyibng dragon. Hiashi heaved, trying to get air into his lungs. "this…is…the Uzimaki…manor?" panting as the poor man was, he was clearly impressed.

Pao nodded. "We of the dragon clan have always served those of the Uzumaki clan, after their founder saved our boss Draco from death. We owe his family an eternal debt."

Hiashi appeared to be impressed, and silently vowed to learn more about the family. Smiling slightly, he limped over to where the boy lay, and bent down, picking him up. He was soon joined by Sakura's father. The others followed inside.

The master bedroom was massive. A single, four-poster bed stood in the center of the room, with scarlet and gold embroidery on the pillows and covers. Several pieces of furniture lay in the room. In one corner, there were two couches, perpindicular to each other, but generally facing a large T.V.. There was a large walk-in closet, with several clothes still in it, most of them ninja combat suits.

A small mini-bar stood in the corner closest to the couches, and, save for the bedside tables and a chest at the foot of the bed, that was all.

Hiashi set the unconscious boy onto the bed before turning to his daughter. "Hinata, you are going to be heir to my position one day. If there ever was to be one who I believed would be good enough for you, it would be Naruto. I know he will protect you, and I wish for you to protect him, too." Hinata nodded once, before her father smiled and hugged her, leaving the room.

Sakura's father also turned to her as well. "The same goes for you. I hope someday he will be able to forgive you for the hurt you caused, but even through that, he still cares deeply for you. Never forget that, and always believe in him."

Ino's parents turned to her, pride on their faces, "You've finally found someone who can keep your temper in check. That's good. Now, take good care of him, and we expect to hear about any children coming along, got it?" Blushing furiously, Ino nodded.

Kyuubi glanced at Tenten, whose parents were whispering in her ear, and, judging from the deep shade of red on her face, had told her something similar to Ino's.

As a crowd, the parents left, knowing they were leaving their daughters to someone who could love them and protect them better than all the jounin in the village.


	8. Chapter 8

Naruto

Chapter 8

As soon as the parents closed the doors, the girls made their way to the couches, to discuss what they would do next. Hinata, for the very first time in her life, felt extremely bold. "our parents are right. Naruto needs our love, not only to restore his clan, but also because he needs a family of his own. he's never had any _real_ family, only surrogates, like Iruka and Tsunade. And besides, who's going to keep him out of trouble?" The girls giggled at that thought. Ino spoke up as the tumult began to die down, "What I'm nervous about is whether or not we should have a wedding. It might seem kind of awkward, you know?" Hinata pouted before raising her chin in the air. "well, you can not marry him, but I most definitely am. Just think what two of the most powerful clans in Fire country could do if they were joined like this. The kyuubi's power, with the Byakugan. Little imps with perfect chakra control and high intelligence. 3 year olds throwing kunai's perfectly. The ability to control minds indefinitely due to unlimited cakra. And let's not forget, little girls with over-sized fans showing off to their mother."

Temari's eyes became stars as she realized then that she would have a whole fleet of fan-wielding children, all begging her to show them a move with their weapon.

Suddenly Pao stuck his head in through a window of the bedroom. "Pardon me for interrupting, but I thought you might find it interesting that not only was the Uzumaki clan known for its strength and unusual stamina, but they were considered the best demon hunters this side of Fire country."

A vein popped in Kyuubi's head, and she yelled at the annoying dragon, "Stop with the facts already! We know he's from a great clan! We already know to restore it, so stop bothering us!"

Pao squeaked in fright, a very un-dragonish thing to do, and pulled his head from the window.

Kyuubi rolled her eyes and looked at the girls, each of whom had stars in their eyes. Smiling, she went over and kissed the sleeping Naruto on the forehead. The boy smiled in his sleep, and mumbled something incomprehensible.

Hauling the girls behind her, she left the room, and began to make plans with her friends.

Tsunade looked at the man with very frank eyes. "So you're telling me, not only did Naruto end up being on par with you, he also destroyed a tiger demon?" Hiashi blanched at the obvious skepticism in the hokage's voice. "I assure you hokage, this is no joke. Have him perform in a test if you must, but I suggest that whatever you throw at him, you send multitudes of."

Two days later found Naruto training in the forest near his home. Several trees had indents inches deep in them, while others had been felled totally. He had just been finishing his usual routine of 1,000 kicks into a tree when he sensed a chakra signature nearby.

Wiping a film of sweat from his brow, Naruto grimaced and called out, "You might as well come out, I already know you're here." There was a chuckle, and Kakashi dropped from a tree, orange book of naughtiness in his hand. Naruto rolled his eyes, "Kakashi, you know that reading that will rot your mind, right?"

The jounin simply nodded, before blushing and giggling. Naruto dead-panned, before asking, "Kakashi, what are you doing here? Jirayai already tried to make me a pervert, so I doubt you're here to convert me."

Then, lo and behold, Kakashi actually looked at Naruto and put his book away. Naruto blinked. That had never happened before. Kakashi roleed his shoulders and cracked his neck, before charging naruto.

Acting on instinct, Naruto drew a kunai, sending it flying before he realized what he had done. The projectile found its mark, imbedding itself only a few centimeters above Kakashi's heart, the onething Naruto had been able to avoid when firing.

The jounin simply winked at him before falling to the ground, as if dead. Thoroughly confused, Naruto scratched his head. But it was then that he noticed the numerous signatures coming for him.

First to reach him was Gai, who actually landed a few hitson Naruto, before finding himself pulling an ostrich when Naruto stuck his head in the ground. Then the rest arrived. Asuma, Kurenai, Anko, Ibiki, and Jirayai just looked at the bodies of the other jounins, befre silently attacking.

Naruto now found himself 5 nins, one of whom was a sannin. Gritting his teeth, he grinned, before moving, leaving a golden streak behind him. an instant later, he appeared right behind the nins, but didn't bother turning around, he knew he had defeated them.

Jirayai turned, shocked at his pupil's use of the body-flicker technique. "How did you…?" Still with his back turned, Naruto chuckled, "I guess you could say it runs in the family. By the way, go and tell Tsunade that I beat you. Better yet, show her."

Naruto turned, his fingers making a v. Jirayai and the others just blinked before al of a sudden Jirayai's hair fell off, the only part remaining being a shaved portion that spelled out 'ero-sennin'

Tsunade smirked at the sight of Jirayai. "So, you finally got what was coming to you huh, Jirayai?" The sannin frowned, "That baka! I'm going to get him back for this!" Then the memory of his defeat came back, "Somehow. But that's beside the point. Not only was he able to use the body-flicker maneuver, he was also able increase its speed. That, and he was strong enough to bury gai's head into the ground without breaking a sweat."

Tsunade smirked. "Really now? I just wonder… what would you say if we really decided to test his abilities? A tournament of sorts. The stakes shall be…if he wins, he gains the title of Sannin, but will also become my second in command. If he fails, he has to give up the life of a shinobi."

Jirayai snorted, "Why would he agree to something that…" "I'll do it." Jirayai screamed, and reflexively threw a kunai at the sound. Naurto caught the projectile with two fingers, twirled it, and threw it back at his sensei's feet. Laughing, he dropped from where he was hanging upside down and landed quiet as a cat next to his sensei. "I'll do it."

"Are you sure? You don't even know who you're opponents are going to be yet." Naruto shrugged, "Doesn't matter. If I win, I will be able to fulfill my dreams that mush faster." "And if you lose?" "I won't but if I do, then I will just set up a gym for fitness freaks like lee. I mean, I'm sure he would want to do push-ups with a 3-ton boulder on his back."

Grinning, Naruto left the room.

Tsunade turned to the jounins in front of her. "Send word out to all the teams, no matter what level. If what I'm thinking is true, then we won't have a problem when we next deal with Oromacharu." She went behind her desk to a calendar, circling Saturday.

"The tournament will be held in 3 days."

It was a serious Naruto that entered the Uzumaki household that day. Despite his best effors, the villagers still hated him with a vengeance, and he knew there was nothing he could do about it. That, and coupled with the upcoming tournament, made him feel spent, as if he had just used up a large amount of chakra. Sighing, he threw his jacket on the sidetable, before walking to the living room.

Tenten, Hinata, and Temari were there, discussing something over a cup of tea. they quieted down when they saw Naruto. He waved at them, mumbling, "Nah don't stop on account of me. I'm just going to sit here and think anyways." He sat on a couch that was several feet from the one they were on.

The three girls looked at each other worriedly, before setting down their cups.

Groaning quietly, Naruto laid his head back and closed his eyes, beginning his meditation. It was there, inside his head, that he sat down to talk with his doppelganger. The two of them were sitting across from each other, looking exactly the same.

The doppelganger frowned at the look on Naruto's face. "What's wrong? You should be happy. You finally have a chance to make the whole village acknowledge you." Naruto shook his head, "It's not the tournament. It's just that, those looks the villager keep giving me, I an't hide it so well anymore. They hurt even more."

"That's because you realize that despite all that you've done for the village, the vast majority of them still hate you, for something that they could never understand." "I could explain it to them." The doppelganger shook his head. "No. do you honestly think that they would believe someone they hate so much? Your best bet is to simply go with the happiness you have."

Naruto grimaced, "Which brings me to myother point…" "Ah yes, the fangirls." "Uh huh. I hated it when the bastard had them, and now I hate it that I have some. They only like me for my power, and the fact that I actually look good now." There was no sound of bravado in Naruto's voice, only simple truth.

The doppelganger shook his head. "That might have been what they were like at first, but they're different now. They understand you now, and love you. Even Sakura, who, thank god, seems to have recovered from the bastard's leaving."

Naruto looked at his copy as if he had grown another head. "Are you on opium? There is not a snowball's chance in hell that all of them could love me."

-Hell-

Satan frowned. For some reason, he had been hit with a snowball. Not only that, but his rivers and lakes of fire were beginning to freeze up. He burst into tears as one of his devils made a snowman.

-Naruto headscape-

"They _do_ love you. Hell, their parents even approved!" Naruto buried his head in his hands. "I can't do that to them, they deserve to be with someone else, not me. I'm not going to be able to make them happy, I don't have the ability."

He looked up as a hand rested against his shoulder. His clone smiled a him, a bit sadly, but mostly with hope. "You'll do fine. You have the capability to make anyone around you happy, but now I think it's time for someone, or rather some people, to make _you_ happy."

With that, Naruto's concentration was broken, and he woke up. He tensed when a pair of arms wrapped around his neck, but softened when he sensed they were Tenten's. Hinata and Temari also joined him on the couch, Hinata on his right, and Temari on his left. He felt Tenten's head rest on his shoulder from behind. "What's wrong, Naruto?" the boy sighed. Before looking at each of the girls in turn. They all had worry etched into their faces, and Hinata looked close to tears.

"I don't deserve you, any of you." That shocked them to the core. "I don't have anything to offer you, I have no money, hardly any possessions of my own, no…family, only a big house, that's empty. There's no one left to bring it any life. Why do you stay? If you left, you could have a better life, filled with happiness, and they would be able to take care of you properly. Despite all of this property, I'm still dirt poor."

The arms around him tightened slightly, and he felt something wet. Startled, he looked, and saw Tenten crying. Now he felt even more miserable, which wasn't helped by the fact that Temari and Hinata had tears as well. Now he just felt more miserable. "See, I can't take care of you right. I made all of you cry, I hurt you." His voice was so pathetic that it made Hinata bite her lip from crying out.

Then he felt Tenten whisper into his ear. "We're crying for you, not because of you, you goof. We love you, and it doesn't matter if you don't have any money, we'll still be with you, because we love you. As towards the rest of being able to take care of us, you're so strong, no one save a demon would think of going against you. We're safer with you than with anyone else. However, there is onle slight problem." Tenten smiled, and squeezed Naruto, "We can't marry you until after the tournament."

"You heard about that?" "Yep, and you have to remember, you never _did_ beat Hinata's dad, so the rest of us decided to hold off on marrying you until you do." "My opponent is going to be Hiashi?"

Tenten chuckled, "Well, yes. I hear you have quite a few, as a matter of fact. It's going to be a long day that day."

Naruto looked up at her before smiling, this one of genuine happiness. "Thanks, I neeed the peptalk." Getting up, he kissed eack of the girls on the cheek, before leaving the room.

In a daze, all three simultaneously put their hands on where he had kissed them.

Kyuubi, ino, and Sakura were in the kitchen making sandwiches, when Naruto passed by. Hugging Kyuubi, he kissed her on the forehead before placing an additional kiss on ino and Sakura's cheeks, and moving to the fridge. "Naruto." The body that was currently rummaging through the fridge froze. "Yes?" "Come here."

A very pale and sweaty Naruto removed himself from the fridge, coming to stand before Kyuubi. "Naruto, what was that?" "uh…a…kiss?" kyuubi shook her head. "I don't think so. That was a peck, not a kiss; appropriate only for hurried days and wake up calls. _This_ is a kiss." With that she pulled him into a fierce liplock.

Fireworks exploded in his head, and for an instant, he froze, savoring the feeling, before returning the kiss. A few seconds passed before Kyuubi broke off, breathing heavily. "Damn, you're a good kisser."

That night, Naruto left the door to his bedchamber open, and, as predicted, 6 girls came to join him, all of them managing to cuddle up with him.

The nxt two days, Naruto trained hard, only stopping to eat or let his chakra rebuild. Perhaps he would have just gone the whole 2 days without stopping had he known whathe was up against.

Saturday morning, Naruto and his 6 girlfriends arrived at the arena. A huge black curtain was spread scross half of the arena, blocking any possible view of the other side. In the stands, several villagers were leering at him, while others were laughing outrageously. A panut bounced off of him, a gift from a drunken villager. The only people in the crowd not laughing at him were the Remn man and his daughter, the 6 girls, and a very serious looking Kit.(thought I forgot about him, huh? Don't worry, he show up more later on, for now, I'm trying to get the emphasis on Naruto.)

It unnerved Naruto that he didn't see any ninjas in the crowd. Then Tsunade's voice boomed throughout the stadium. "Naruto Uzumaki. This tournament is here to test yur abilities. If you win, you will be given the rank sannin, and will become my 2nd in command. However, if you fail, you must give up your carreer as a shinobi. A warning for you, your opponents will attack as if they were going to kill you, regardless of whether or not you kow them. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded, and turned to face the curtain, as it was being drawn from the stage. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw who his opponents were. "Fight!"

No one moved. Naruto just ogled the huge mass of nin in front of him. every nin, save for his girlfriends, was out there. Then he grinned, it was the perfect time to try out his new jutsu, one he invented himself.

"Well now, seeing as this is a special event, I feel it must require a special jutsu."

With lightning speed, he formed handseals, before calling out: **Kit form: phoenix wings**

With that, naruto's jacket ripped from his shoulder, and his shirt fell to shreds, as redand blue chakra swirled around him. the sphere of chakra compressed tighter and tighter, before bursting out in a wave that made a few of the weaker nins lose their balance.

Then Naruto walked out of the dust. A loud _oooh_ swept through the arena.


	9. Chapter 9

Naruto

Chapter 9

A thanks to all my readers, and especially those of you ho review. It's a much bigger incentive to write when you get feedback, especially when it's good feedback. (Bows respectively) now, on to the story, btw, I don't own naruto, much to my displeasure.

Naruto grinned, the look on their faces was priceless. Kakashi had his sharingan out and was staring at him intently. "Don't bother, Kakashi, even if you could copy this jutsu, it only works with demonic chakra, which I have."

Naruto stood out in the open. He looked the same, save for the fact that the clothes of his upper torso had been ripped from his body by a pair of fiery, 9-foot each wings.

"Now then, shall we get started?" instantly, some of the hot-headed genin charged, only to find themselves in dreamland barely half a second later. Smiling, Naruto flew into the air, activating the secret of his wings. "_Burning wings jutsu, blazing comet!"_

He flew 150 feet up, before pivoting, and heading straight into the ground. As he neared the ground, his body burst into flames, right before he impacted the ground with an explosion.

The smoke cleared showing a huge crater, with almost 50 nins either unconscious, or too injured to fight back. Naruto estimated that left about 100 more. Smoothly, he slidinto his taijutsu position, eyeing the remaining nins.

This time, Jirayai led them in an organized charge. Scowling, Naruto flipped over his sensei's initial punch, before spinning upside down and delivering a massive roundhouse kik to the side of the pervert's head.

Jirayai flew at leat a hundred feet before hitting the ground and rolling.

But Naruto didn't have time to gloat. As he landed from his kick, he crouched and shot out his leg, kicking the legs out from beneath the 4 closest nins. He smiled, before ctaching the arm of an attacking Hyuuga, and throwing him into a mass that had been about to attack him from behind.

A glancing blow alerted him to more opponents, and he shout out his elbow, catching Neji in the gut. Not wanting to hurt his friend more, Naruto quickly put him out of commission with a pressure point.

His mercy cost him however. Even the slight blow from Neji had caused him pain, and it distracted him enough that several fists and feet found their mark. Shaking the pain off, he lashed out with a speed no normal human could match. Naruto grit his teeth as he leaped away from the swarm of nins, clutching his shoulder. Using that speed had almost rendred his arm useless, and most of his demon chakra in his jutsu. He decided to risk it and used the last of it to heal his shoulder.

With a sickening crack, Naruto's shoulder popped back into place and the internal bleeding there halted. It was then that ne of the stupider chuunin said something, "Hey naruto, how about after this we crash at your place? I'm sure your girlfriends would be willing to…entertain us."

Now see, there are a number of stupid people in the world. This nin happens to be one of them. Now, we all know about Darwinism (I hope). Well, this nin just assured himself that he, and the nins that were laughing with him, were to be subjected to a very harsh and extremely painful end to their antics.

Naruto's fury was stoked to huge proportions, and he snarled demonically. Chakra erupted from his pores to form an aura, but this time, it wasn't red, it was his own. even the ones that knew him found it hard to believe that he had this much chakra by himself. He rushed forward, a golden streak behind him, and ended with his leg smashing into a very important and tender male organ. The nin squeaked, as he was lifted high into the air, and fell, deadpanned with a small amount of drool coming from his mouth. Then Naruto turned to the ones that had been laughing.

The blue chakra darkened, as if it was water turned to ice, and the boy held out his hands, as if he was a saviour come to them. But he was more an angel of retribution than forgiveness. Tsunade's eyes widened as she recognized what he was doing. "Naruto, no!" But it was too late.

In each hand a swiling ball of chakra appeared, first going light blue, then red (The rasengan he used against the tiger demon) and finally settled into a dark navy blue, with flashes of white flowing through it.

"Yondaime's ultimate jutsu: Uzumaki Gatling Rasengan!"

Roaring, he pushed the two balls together, forming one huge one, and held it between his hands in front of him. Instantly, hundreds of pellets of chakra flew out, hitting with the force of well-aimed 2 pound stones thrown by a baseball hall-of-famer. The whole first rank folded as if they had fainted. The second rank was more resilient, but it too, fell. It continued, ripping through the ranks, as if they were paper, until the chakra in the sphere was used up.

Naruto collapsed to one knee, breathing hard. That move had used up nearly all of his chakra, and he was exhausted. Then clapping could be heard through the smoke.

Looking up, Naruto saw Hiashi, standing with naught but a chip of stone on his shoulder. Naruto groaned, and stood to his feet painfully.

Hinata was staring at Naruto, her face a mixture of worry and pride for the boy, but when she saw who was clapping, and that Naruto was attempting to stand, she couldn't tand it anymore. "No! Naruto don't! This isn't worth getting hurt over! I don't want you to get hurt just to be second in command!"

Naruto looked at her as if shocked. "Hinata, if that had been what it was all about, I would never have gotten up. No, this fight is important to me for another reason." He turned to Hiashi, smiling through the pain that wracked his body. "I never did beat you, and so now, I have my chance. If I don't I will never be able to marry Hinata and the others. I still don't know why they chose me, but if it makes them happy, then I will do it. Even if I have to kill hundreds at their order, if it makes them happy, I will do it."

In truth, Hiashi had already approved of the boy, from the moment he had seen him attack the tiger demon head on. But he wanted to see how dedicated the boy was, and if he would ever back down when injured. So far, he was exceeding expectations.

Hiashi smiled. "Well, let's see if you fight with the same spirit when you're injured." And he disappeared, reappearing with his foot in Naruto's gut. Even tsunade winced at that. the boy was sent tumbling and rolling, his progress halted by the stone wall of the arena, which cracked from the force.

For a second, Naruto didn't move, before a twitching arm grabbed the edge of the crater his body had made and hauled him to his feet. His legs were close to buckling, and scrapes and cuts covered his chest and arms in blood. He was beginning to feel something he had never felt before; despair.

Gritting his teeth, he glanced at where his girlfriends were sitting. They were all staring at him with tears in his eyes, especially Hinata. That sight in itself, somewhat resolved his spirit, and he straightened noticeably, though he was nowhere near his full height.

Hiashi noticed his opponents eyes dart towards his daughter, and he smiled. His smile grew wider when he saw that his daughter's care for him seemed to give the boy added resolve.

Naruto was panting from the effort to stand, so he was unprepared for what came next. Hiashi disappeared again, and reappeared behaind Naruto, stabbing him in both shoulders with kunai, and then disappearing again.

Naruto cried out in agony, and his arms hung useless at his sides, blood beginning to drip down onto the arena. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he stared his opponents in the eye. "Hiashi Hyuuga, I don't care how many times you kick me, how many times you punch me, stab me, burn me, freeze me, shock me, I will never give up!"

Growling, he reached behind him, ignoring the pain as best he could, and pulled out the kunai, and flinging the implements to the ground. Breathing ragged, he straightened to his full height.

"Now you will know why I am truly the 4th's son!"

"Uzumaki family technique: Body flicker!" Naruto disappeared, reappearing right in front of hiashi, knee already coming up in anticipation of the blow. Despite the added speed of the technique, though, Hiashi still saw it, and dodged, before sledgehammering Naruto in the back, and backing off.

Naruto grimaced, before standing again. "Fine that didn't work, then maybe this will;

Uzumaki ultimate move, as redefined by his son, to accomadate the styles of his family!"

Naruto slid into a pre-body-flicker position, but he held his hands out wide. Concentrating all of his remaining available chakra, Naruto sent forth his own jutsu. Chakra appeared between two fingers of his right hand, concentrated to form a chakra scalpel, between another 2 was a kunai formed of chakra, and the space of the last two had a miniature fan, designed for throwing. His left hand formed a pointer with his index and middle finger extended, chakra pulsing at the tip. From the back of his body 5 tails sprouted, and then a 6th joined them. Then waves of chakra pulsed from him, impacting Hiashi with the force of a linebacker. The first was in the image of Sakura, the second of Ino, then Jirayai, and lastly and greatly of all, Arashi, Naruto's father. Hiashis grit his teeth against the chakra attacks, his bloodline activated. He saw the remainder of the boys' chakra was depleting rapidly, and he had a good chance of dying when this was over. Hiashi was scared.

"Uzumaki 2nd generation original ultimate jutsu; Ties of the heart!"

The kunai and fan were the first to go, the former stabbing hiashi in the leg, immobilizing him, while the latter created a deep gash in the man's left arm, rendering it useless, too. Then came the scalpel, numbing Hiashi's other leg, before an imitation of his family's techniques closed all of his tenkutsus. Then came the most painful one of all. The 6 tails shot out from behind Naruto, elongating, and becoming hard. They smashed into Hiashi, carrying him over the arena floor until he was crushed into the wall.

Naruto stood, sweat dripping from him in buckets, as he waited for his opponent to get back up. But he didn't. Naruto smiled, as he heard Tsunade anoounce in a quietly shocked voice, "Winner, Naruto." Laughing once, Naruto fell forward onto his face.

The 6 girls all jumped from the stands, running to meet with their boyfriend. Tsunade just sat slumped in her chair, awed by what she had seen. She stayed like that for several minutes before someone suggested she call the medic-nins.

The girls picked their love up together, as he was too havy for just two ofthem to carry him. during this, Naruto woke for an instant, "Heh…sorry I had to…hurt your father…so much, Hinata, forgive me." With that, he passed out again.

Naruto lay in hs bed, still asleep. The initial diagnosis had been bad. one dislocated shoulder that had healed somewhat, 6 cracked and broken ribs, two stab wounds, blood loss, massive bruising, and chakra exhaustion.

However, the girls refused for anyone to come near him save for his friends. Yet those too, did not show up. The fact they were in the hospital might have had something to do with it.

But two weeks later, one visitor did come. Hiashi Hyuuga. Half of him was in a cast, but he had been approved for moving around, and this was the first place he had gone upon his release. He stared at the boy, before quietly saying one thing, "Son." Smiling, he kissed Hinata and left.

During Naruto's healing state, the girls found time to discuss what they had seen.

"What was that attack he did at the end?" Asked Tenten. Kyuubi smiled fondly as she looked at the boy. "That last jutsu was apparently one he created himself, mixing the attacks of those he loved all into one. Note the fan for Temari, Kunai for Tenten, scalpel for Tsunade, that byakugan attack for Hinata, the chakra waves for those who don't have special attacks, and the tails for me."

Sakura looked at him sadly, "He went through all of that, just so we would be able to marry him." "Well you heard what he said, he cares for us and wants to make us happy, even if it's at the cost of his own life or worse, humanity. He was willing to kill hundreds if it made us happy." "Or get the crap beaten out of him."muttered Hinata. Ino raised an eyebrow at the girl. "You seem upset about something." "It's just that he seemed so willing to die to protect us, or rather our honor. You saw what happened when that nin made his little quip." "Ooh, won't be able to forget that one for awhile. Bloody brutal, that."

Hinata nodded, "Exactly. Just imagine what would happen if one of us was killed, let alone injured." Kyuubi gave her a reassuring smile, "Actually, Hinata, I would be worried if he wasn't acting like this. Foxes tend to be very protective of their families, as well as demons, and when you put the two together, well…you get the idea. If anything, he's gained my old fear of losing my family." At their questioning look, she replied, "Some stupid leaf shinobi named Oromachiaru summoned me, and tried to get me to do what he wanted. When I refused, he killed my mate and our cubs. Ever since then, I've always had a fear of losing any loved ones, to the point of going berserker. You should be proud of Naruto for working as hard as he did for you. This just means to him that he will always be able to protect you."

Hinata was silent for a moment. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" "I don't know," responded Kyubbi, "But I would hate to be anyone that threatens one of us."

At that moment, Naruto groaned, slowly blinking his eyes. In an instant, the girls were by his side, asking him dozens of questions at once at a volume that had his aching head ringing like a bell. Moaning, he held his head and fell back on the bed.

Kit then took the opportunity to make his presence known, jumping on the bed lightly, landing in his master's lap. The fox cub gave a small whimper of sadness at Naruto's state, before walking up and licking his face.

Naruto laughed, trying desperately to pull his face away from the affectionate Kit. Then something very… interesting happened. As Naruto was laughing, a tent was slowly starting to form in his sheets. A very large tent. Kyuubi, who had her back turned due to receiving a cuop of tea she was currently drinking, turned, stared,…and spit out her tea as she started choking.

The other girls, however, were near epilepsy. All were shaking where they stood, and a small line of blood was dripping from her nose. It was then that Naruto noticed that the girls were being awfully quiet.

Frowning, he turned his attention towards them, trying to see what was wrong. His vision, though, was blocked by a very large bulge. A large bulge that was situated right where where an important male organ was.

Naruto's eyes widened, and his jaw started to work, but no sound was coming out. Then something incredibly strange happened; it started to move. First it rotated, moving in a small circle, before stopping fully erect, and nodding.

It was then that Kit decided to attack the bulge. Even though he was still young, the cub's teeth were sharp. Naruto screamed in pain as the cub bit down, and jumped out of the bed before he realized what he had done.

Kyuubi crooked an eyebrow at the sight; a completely nude Naruto, with naught but 6 tails, one of which was placed in a very strategic area. Evidently it was the tail that had caused the bulge.

Unfortunately for the other girls, though, they suffered from huge nosebleeds, passing out instantly.


	10. Chapter 10

Naruto

Chapter 10

"You're sure that they won't freak out?" Kyuubi sighed as she looked at the boy she loved. He was in his usual battle outfit, save for the fact he now had 6 waving tails coming from his backside.

"Compared to what you did in the battle, I doubt much would shock them." Naruto grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Good point." Rolling her eyes, Kyuubi leaned over the counter in the kitchen to grab something. Naruto, totally oblivious, never saw the tail that was making its way slowly towards kyuubi.

The girl squeaked once, before turning a serious shade of red. "Naruto!" the boy looked up from the manga he had been reading. "What?" then he noticed the tail that was stroking his girlfriend's butt.

Crying out, he grabbed the tail and tried to wrestle it away. The appendage resisted quite strongly. Cursing, Naruto punched it. That had been a bad idea. Instantly, the tail bristled, before suddenly pulling itself back towards its owner.

Naruto, caught off-balance, was repeatedly slapped by said appendage. Growling, Naruto ducked under one slap and then proceeded to throttle the tail. "Bad tail! BAD TAIL! Bad hentai tail." He began to smack it against the table, laughing triumphantly.

After 5 minutes of constant abuse, the white tufts of fur on the tail began waving, imitating a white flag. Naruto yelled in victory and released the appendage, which fell to the floor like a wet noodle, occasionally twitching.

All through this, Kyuubi watched in morbid fascination. Her boyfriend was beating HIS OWN TAIL because it had impugned her honor.

Panting, Naruto smiled and looked at Kyuubi, "Sorry about that, bloody things have a mind of their own sometimes." Kyuubi grinned saucily, "Oh, I wasn't offended. Actually, I found it rather nice." Naruto gave her a look of confusion, before his beaten appendage gave a half-hearted attempt to raise itself for another go. It paused in mid-air, before slumping back onto the floor. Naruto glared at it, "Serves you right! That's no way to treat a lady!"

Just as those words left his mouth, an explosion rocked the premises. Kyuubi lost her balance, falling into Naruto, as they both collapsed to the floor. Kyuubi grinned seductively, before kissing Naruto passionately. "THAT'S how you're supposed to treat a lady."

Naruto smiled back at her, before gently lifting her with his tails and setting her back on her feet, "Maybe another time, kyuubi. Right now, I have business to attend to." With that, he leaped out the window, running towards konoha.

Naruto was in trouble. Groaning, he pulled himself from the crater his impact had made and grimaced. One or more of his ribs were broken, and he had several nasty cuts.

He was currently fighting a 7-tailed baboon demon, and was losing badly. Standing back on his feet, he looked up at his opponent, only to meet a huge beam of chakra head-on. In the blink of an eye, Naruto had a katana drawn, and he swung at the beam, mere milliseconds before it hit him.

Instantly, the beam was split in two, but so narrowly that the chakra burned both his arms. Gritting his teeth, Naruto narrowed his eyes and pushed forward. The baboon shut off the beam, staring at the human in front of it. Naruto was panting, sword red-hot from the chakra it had diverted. Nearby, the darkening sky flashed and thunder rolled. Slowly at first, but building each second, rain began to fall. Instantly, some turned to steam, even before they touched Naruto. Suddenly, naruto grinned. He knew how to beat the demon.

He began forming handseals, hoping against all hope that the baboon demon would not recognize what he was doing.

Indeed, the demon did not know what Naruto was doing, until it was too late.

Kit form: sphere of blades 

The water around the demon began to cool down, freezing and hardening into small stilettos of ice, incredibly sharp and deadly. With a gust of wind, the ice flew in a sphere shape, slowly closing in on the demon, until the beast died, looking like a pincushion.

Laughing once, Naruto collapsed to his knees, clutching his arm. The limb was deathly cold to the touch, and beginning to turn blue. He grinned to himself, and then started rubbing his chest to get blood flowing to his arm.

So preoccupied with his own needs, Naruto didn't notice the large tail that smacked him into a tree.

The baboon demon stood back on its legs, eyeing the dust cloud where the human had landed with contempt. It snorted once. The human's jutsu had been powerful, but it would take much more than that to stop a 7-tailed demon.

The demon huffed once and turned, about to leave, before it felt a sharp pain in its back leg. Annoyed, it looked down.

There stood a panting Naruto, 6 tails waving behind him, and right hand smoking. The baboon demon snarled, and launched itself at Naruto.

The ninja rolled to the side, narrowly missing a claw, before jumping up and flipping vertically onto a tree, and launching himself at the demon.

Irritated, the demon swiped at him, missing. Naruto grinned, and landed on the babboon's arm, running up its length towards the head, making handseals as fast as possible.

Kage Bushin! 

**Kit form: Blazing fists!**

Suddenly, one Naruto became 10 Narutos, and each had flames surrounding their hands and feet. Each one jumped into the air, kicking and punching at the demon's face, before falling to the ground, waiting for their original's killing blow. And there he was, katana swirling with the chakra flowing through it.

The blade met bone, and sliced through, the energy from the blade reaching out from the main cut to rend the demon entirely in two. Naruto fell to the ground, creating a three-foot wide crater on either side of him.

The demon stood for a mere second, before spraying out huge geysers of blood and collapsing on itself.

Laughing soflty, Naruto stood painfully, as he made his way to the hokage's tower to report.

40 minutes later, he was back at his family estate, limping through the garden towards the front doors. A small yip drew his attention towards the ground, identifying his furry pet. "Hey Kit! How are you?" The fox cub yipped happily, before leaping onto Naruto's shoulders and licking his face. Laughing, Naruto turned his attention back to the path, but stopped cold as he met the icy glares of kyuubi, Hinata, Sakura, Tenten, Temari, and Ino.

Sakura spoke first, "What were you just doing, Naruto?" Naruto laughed nervously, sweat sprouting from his brow. "uhh…eating ramen?" Ino snorted, "Then why are you limping?" "Because that was my hollow leg, you know, the one where I put all my ramen when I eat? Its heavier than the other right now." Kyuubi forced herself to stay stern as she listened to the ridiculous story. "Which one was it?" she asked calmly. The other girls stared at her as they had no idea what she was talking about, but naruto answered anyways, "seven-tailed baboon."

Kyuubi erupted, "You fought against that sadistic bastard all by yourself! Are you mad!" Naruto began to sweat more heavily now. Nervously, he wiped at it. The girls froze. "What?" he asked, seeing them all stare at him, save for Hinata and Kyuubi. Then he noticed the huge puppy-dog eyes the girls had. Then it occurred to him that he had just wiped his brow with one of his tails. Immediately, 4 voices cried, "Cuteness!"

His tails immediately found themselves given a LOT of female attention, while Naruto himself… the moment his tails were touched, a feeling shot through him, from his tail, to his brain, and then to his…you get the idea. It didn't help that the girls were all stroking them, it just made the feeling more intense. Embarissingly, he noticed that he was beginning to get an erection. Kyuubi noticed as well and came to his help, "Alright, that's enough, you can play with them more later, right now, I'm sure e's tired and sore." Naruto threw her a thankful glance, before he and the others went inside.

He walked into his room, kicking the door shut behind him. Sighing, he pulled his shirt out of his pants, wincing at the pain in his ribs.he tossed the shirt in the hamper next to his door. Wearily, he went to the mirror to see how bad his injuries really were.

He winced again at the sight. His torso was a mass of bruises and cuts, and the upper portions of his arms had blisters from where they were burned. He rolled his eyes, and grabbed a bottle on his dresser, but stopped at a knock on his door. "Come in."

He turned back to the bottle, opening it just as Hinata entered. He could tell it was her because he had recognized her scent. "Naruto-kun?" "Yes Hinata?" "um… I brought some…medicine…for your…" She stopped turning a beet red. Naruto smiled slightly at her. She was sweet. He turned to her, thankful for the attention. Her eyes widened when she saw his torso, and then narrowed. "Go lie on the bed." She ordered, shocking Naruto. He was about to complain, when she threw him a look that said, 'don't argue, just do it'.

Sighing again, he went and laid down on the bed. Sniffing slightly, hinata straddled him, a jar of medicinal cream in her hands. Taking some from the bottle, she began to rub it in his chest and stomach.

Naruto was startled at the beginning, but closed his eyes as relaxation poured through him. after about 5 minutes, Hinata ordered him to flip onto his stomach, and he did so. instantly, a pair of hands began to knead his back firmly, relaxing him even more. He didn't even notice when he fell asleep.

-3 minutes later, in the living room-

Hinata and the others were assembled in the living room talking. "So when do you think the wedding should be?" Asked Sakura, who was sharpening a kunai. Kyuubi shrugged, "I have no idea. But if we are going to do it, it should be soon." "Why?" Asked Tenten. "My old enemies have started to come, demons who would be more than happy to kill Naruto, as they sense my old chakra in him. the tiger was one of them, but today he fougt one of the nastier ones, a baboon demon, with 7 tails. That demon is particularly known for its viciousness in battle. Naruto is barely able to beat a 7-tailed demon, but most of my enemies are 8-tailed. At this point, he will only grow more tails, a sign of his power, once a year. His next will come on his seventeenth birthday. That's in a week, Thursday." "The day we all celebrated your demise." Said Hinata dryly. She was remembering how the villagers treated Naruto on that day.

Kyuubi nodded. "That's correct. Now, I want to make his birthday special. Any ideas?"

-a week later-

in the last 7 days, Naruto had dispatched 2 more demons, a feat that had not gone unnoticed by the villagers. Whenever he walked through the village now, he received far fewer glares, and some even looked at him with open admiration. None of them seemed to care that he had 6 tails swinging behind him.

he was currently walking back to his house unnerved by the looks the ramen cook's daughter had been giving him (A/N another one!). opening his door, he narrowed his eyes at the blackness enveloping the interior of the house. Slowly, he moved his hand up the wall, until jerking it up, throwing on the lights.

"**SURPRISE**!"

Naruto was nearly blown back by the force of the cheer, but did manage to stay on his feet.

In front of him were 6 girls, all of them wearing bathing suits, skimpy ones at that, and holding a present. In the far corner of the room, a huge pile of presents was waiting, and a large table held a cake.

Naruto's attention, however, couldn't seem to stray from the girls. Each one was wearing a very brief bikini that would give a blind man a heart attack. Kyuubi spoke first, "Happy birthday, Naruto! We got talking last week, and figured, since we're getting married anyways, that you might as well get what's coming to you. Hinata volunteered to go first."

The others smirked when they saw a shell-shocked Naruto being dragged towards the bedroom by a very determined-looking Hinata.

Hinata closed and locked the door behind her, before turning her attention to the still shell-shocked object of her love. She gathered the boy in her arms hugging him gently. The show of affection wrenched Naruto from his reverie. Slowly, he returned her hug, squeezing her against him firmly, as if to protect her from everything in the world. She lifter her head up, and met her lips to his.

Fireworks exploded in both of their heads as they met, and slowly, the two of them backed up to the bed, before collapsing on it, still kissing gently.

The next day, as Naruto disentangled himself from Ino, he told himself that that had been the absolute best birthday in his entire life. Each girl had made love to him, and they were currently asleep, all of them, in his bed. (A/N don't ask me how they got there, I'm not explaining.)

His fingers playing with the gift that Tenten gave him, the number ten on a silver chain, he went over to the other presents the girls had for him and opened them.

His eyes watered as he did so, Sakura had given him a pair of bracers for his forearms, strong enough to block a sword strike, Ino had given him a new jacket, with his clan symbol on the back, surrounded with the crests of each of his girlfriends, kyuubi had given him another fox cub, a girl, which had gone somewhere with Kit…, Temari gave him a silver earing, and a handcrafted kunai with all of their names on it, Hinata had given him a box, with seven rings in it, and a date written on a piece of paper.


	11. Chapter 11

Naruto

Chapter 11

Foreword by author- okay, I know I haven't updated in a while, but it was for a good cause! Writer's block and schoolwork. Anyways, I have gotten a review from one of my faithful readers at fictionpress, so, I may have to split my time between fanfiction and fictionpress (fictionpress is where original stories are posted). Anyways, I would like to answer some of my reviewer's questions for them as I have yet to do that.

Ranko- Thx, it's nice to have good feedback, helps with the confidence.

Big Daddy Cool- Really? Can u get me a list of the harem stories you've read? I love them! Unfortunately, Naruto feels as if Tsunade is his grandmother, which could be really…weird. Anko is a possibility, one which I will definitely look into, perhaps later on in the plot. Kurenai too. She's hot.

Lll- good, cuz she's going to show up in his harem, though probably not for another few chapters.

Hurricane97- ummm…I agree with you with Naruto's position. Now about lemons…I don't know what Fanfiction's policy is on those, could someone inform me, plz! If they're allowed, I'll get to working on it for later chapters.

Might- ooooooookkkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy…..um, that just means my evil flying monkey minions and over-protective dragon demon will have to use the 'thousand years of pain' on you. I'll update as often as I can.

Pockygirl-Gaara? Well, seeing as his sister is one of the one's getting married, maybe. Or I could have two performers…

Vincent1875-(Eye twitching) I read a story once where the author put 'my story, my rules.' It still holds true. In my story, I am god. (Pokes innocent mortal in the head) anyways, Sasuke is a bastard, and will probably die in this story, but my next one, he will be nicer, possibly friends with Naruto. It might be a time-travel fic, I like those.

Yo-me too. Unfortunately, there is a lot of yaoi out there, so I am doing all that is possible to even the scales. I mean, I can understand fangirls writing that stuff, but there are males out there too. I've read a lot of good stories, some of which are in my favorites.

I seem to have forgotten about Itachi, haven't I? Don't worry, he's a good guy, and might actually help in killing his brother. A word for the wise, Naruto is not all-powerful, he just so happens to be able to kick a lot of shinobi's asses. For example, he almost dies at the hand of Orochimaru…that was a teaser.

Now, onto the story….

Several months after his capture, Itachi was released, after suffiecient proof had been shown that he had not killed his clan. There was a celebration, and a mourning, as Itachi was pissed when he found out exactly what Sasuke had done to Naruto. He vowed to get vengeance for his friend.

Naruto walked into the kitchen, which was occupied by Hinata, Tenten, and Sakura. "Morning." He yawned, before going up to each of them and kissing them on the cheek and taking a seat at the table.

Hinata blushed at the kiss, and hurriedly busied herself with cooking some eggs. Tenten blushed very lightly at the kiss, but still didn't seem to be able to say anything. Sakura just glazed over.

Naruto sighed, before grabbing some of the now-cooked eggs, and strapping on his ninja gear. Stepping out of his room, he ran into temari, who gave him a very enthusiastic hello kiss, including a bit of tongue in the deal.

"Good morning, Naruto." Temari giggled, as Naruto's eyes glazed over, his mouth moving up and dowm like a fish gasping for air. Kyubbi walked around the corner, giggling when she saw Naruto. "you ruined him, Temari, you can't kiss him like that until he's fully awake, otherwise he'll be distracted for the rest of the day."

Temari blushed, "Oops." Then, totally forgetting the lesson she had been given, she kissed Naruto again.

Now, there is plenty of evidence showing that people who have had their minds totally blown will be unable to focus on anything for the rest of the day. This still holds true for our intrepid hero.

Throughout the day, Naruto was totally unaware of what was occurring around him, even when a misthrown kunai scraped an inch-long gash on his arm.

He was wandering aimlessly, the pain of his arm forgotten, the powers inherited from Kyuubi's exorcism managing well. An enormous explosion rocked the Konoha premises, to which some part of his consciousness had decided to go. So, like a zombie, he made his way towards the explosion.

Orochimaru sneered at the shinobis gathered around him. "So… are you angry at me for taking your Sasuke-kun? You know, he would never have come had he not wanted to; his lust for killing his brother was too great, even when the evidence pointed to the facts that it wasn't Itachi who killed the uchiha clan," The grin darkened, "But me."

A roar erupted from the gathered from the mass of shinobis, and Itachi leapt out, kunai in hand. Orochimaru smirked, and simply side-stepped the attack and kicked itachi into the base of the hokage monument.

Spitting on the now-inert Itachi, The sanke-sannin turned his attention back to the shinobis, when he saw a flash of red hair. "ahh…kyuubi. You're finally out of your cage. Tell me, did you like it there? I mean, you were imprisoned because of me, weren't you. Was the time well-spent planning for my demise? Maybe you can have that blond bastard kill me for you, seeing as your about as powerful as a mouse now."

Several girls tensed at the mention of Naruto, as well as several of the shinobis Naruto had befriended. As if on cue, the object of conersation walked out from the crowd. "You wanted me Orochimaru?"

The presence of the sannin had snapped Naruto from his reverie, and now the temperature seemed to have fallen several degrees as naruto's usually joy-filled eyes narrowed dangerously, hardening into sapphires.

Orochimaru took one glance at the now-tall blond that stood in frot of him, before cracking up in laughter. "I don't see what's so funny, bastard." At that instant, a nin who had been hiding in the crowd leapt forward, chakra scalpel in hand.

The scalpel stabbed into naruto, right through the throat. Throwing the sannin an irritated look, he reached behind him and grasped Kabuto's arm, flipping the man over him, before snapping his arm. Kabuto cried out in pain, clutching the damaged limb. Taking advantage of the medic-nin's open orifice, naruto took a kunai with an explosive note attached, shoving it into the man's mouth.

Kabuto's eyes widened, right before his head blew. Still not satisfied, naruto burned the body into ash with a quick jutsu.

He returned his attention to the sannin, only to suddenly find a sword buried to the hilt in his chest. Blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, Naruto scowled, "Now now, Orochimaru, that's just not fair game." Bringing a bent elbow down, Naruto snapped Orochimaru's arm, before pulling the sword out, already feeling the effectsof the poison.

He snapped the sword in two, before advancing on the sannin-bastard. "You know, I once had a sensei, who, if nothing else, taught me the lesson that, ninjas who don't follow the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum. Granted, that teacher should have listened to his own advice, but that's not the point." Naruto lifted Orochimaru by the front of his shirt, bringing him to eye level. "You abandoned your friends for power. You abandoned the village because you couldn't become hokage. You are worse than scum. You made Sasuke, who just needed some guidance and help, into worse than scum. Did you know, that near the end, the reason why I didn't kill sasuke, even when half his arm was jutting out from my back, was because I considered him a friend, almost a brother, moreover, a TEAMMATE! NO HONORABLE SHINOBI ABANDONS HIS FRIENDS! I COULD HAVE BLOWN HIS HEAD OFF WITH MY RASENGAN, BUT INSTEAD I CHOSE TO SHOW THAT I COULD BEAT HIM, WITH POWER THAT LEFT ME BEING HATED IN THIS VILLAGE! NO MATTER WHAT I DO, THIS VILLAGE WILL NEVER SEE ME AS ANYTHING BUT THE 'DEMON CARRIER! I USE MY POWER TO SAVE MY FRIENDS AND THOSE WHO I LOVE!" At that instant, a necklace that had been under Naruto's shirt, slipped into view, seven rings hanging from it. Orochimaru, at first unsettled by the boy's anger, suddenly got an evil smirk on his face. "So, you love them, do you? Well, then this will amuse you." A kunai shot out from under his sleeve, before landing with a dull _thwack_. Naruto paled, dropping the sannin.

Slowly, he turned to face a teary Hinata, who had a kunai buried in the middle of her chest. Tears unshed glimmered in her eyes as she mouthed '_I love you' _to Naruto, before falling forward to the ground, dead.

Naruto stood there shocked. Neji had tears in his eyes, as did hanabi and Hiashi. But then something unexpected happened. Kyuubi stepped forward towards Naruto, crying from the loss of her friend. She leaned towards Naruto and spoke softly into his ear, and naruto nodded softly, before closing his eyes.

Kyuubi backed away quickly, just as naruto's eyes snapped open. His blue eyes had turned crimson, and his body began to change. "You will pay for hurting my loved one, you bastard." Naruto's hair grew longer, and claws extended from his hands, as well as fangs from his mouth. Then his clothes changed.

His shirt was burned off, while his jeans became extremely baggy pants that were secured by bandages at his ankles. A deep voice called out:

Kit form: Berserker frenzy 

Like lightning, Naruto shot forward, swiping a bloody streak across Orochimaru's front. Before the sannin fell to the ground, Naruto kicked him almost twenty feet into the air. Unfortunately, that gave the snake sannin time to recuperate somewhat. He activated his seal to its highest, becoming somewhat of a demon himself.

He dropped to the ground like a cat on all fours, then leaped at naruto, who ran to meet him. the moment they clashed was almost like time had frozen itself; everything was quiet and calm, before a huge sphere of energy from their clashing swept away from them.

Then the real fight began. They traded blows that had such force behind them that they sounded like cannons going off. Their speed was unbelievable, they kept disappearing and reappearing, always fighting.

After almost half an hour of all-out taijutsu, both were breathing heavily. Bloody wounds covered both of them, though the snake sannin had more than naruto. That pissed off Orochimaru. "How did you get so powerful, you little bastard? Three years ago, you couldn't even touch me." Naruto bared his fangs, "That's a mystery that will stay with you to your death, Orochimaru."

Then Naruto held his hands out in front of him, before sliding into a stance that all of the older shinobi recognized, as their surprise got the better of them, especially when ?Naruto held two familiar balls of chakra in his hands.

A sudden gold flash was all the warning Orochimaru had before both his arms were blown off. Crying out, he collapsed to his knees, as blood gushed from the wounds. Quickly, Naruto closed the wounds with a fire jutsu; he wanted the bastard alive.

Jutsu complete, Naruto grabbed the sannin by the head and dragged his sobbing body towards where Hinata lay. He jerked Orochimaru to his knees, before bringing his face down to look at Hinata. "look what you've done, you bastard! I loved her, her and everyone else, so much that I would have died to protect them! Look what you've done!"

Orochimaru did look, before spitting on the corpse. Growling in absolute rage, Naruto raised his knee before smashing the sannin's head into it several times.

"That's it! There's only one way someone like you will learn their lesson!"

Pinning the sannin to the ground with one foot, naruto quickly began doing handseals. As the seals wor on and on, the sky began to darken, ominous-looking clouds blocking the sun.

The wind increased, pulling at the shinobis as if to take them away from whatever was coming. Then Naruto finished the last seal, before lowering his arms in exhaustion.

Slowly, a funnel began to form in the clouds directly above him, before lengthening into a tornado, which, oddly enough, touched ground, but didn't seem to pull anything up with it. Slowly, the spinning dissipated, revealing a huge figure.

He was easily 200 feet tall, with dark purple skin, neon red eyes, huge fangs, and a glowling black kanji that spoke 'death'. "Who dares summon me?"

"I did!" yelled naruto. "I have a request to ask of you." The death god's eyes narrowed, as he asked cautiously, "And what would be the task?"

naruto held up the bloodied form of Orochimaru. "I want you to take his soul, kbuto's, and mine, as a sacrifice for the soul of the girl over there!" he poited with his free hand towards Hinata.

Several shouts of protest sounded, but Naruto ignored them. The death god looked at him funnily, "Why would you do such a thing, human?"

"Because I love her! I want her to be able to live out her life to the fullest! Even if it means sshe has to love someone other than me!"

the death god's frown deepened. "You must be a very important person, little one. I have three souls in my possession, all of which are telling you to not give up your soul. All three have a love for you, though one is a different kind."

Naruto frowned, but stayed resolute. "It doesn't matter! However, when you take these two, please, do me a favor and rip their souls apart bit by bit over time, as payment for all of the suffering they've caused."

The death god nodded once, "deal." He reached out with one hand and ripped Naruto's soul from his body.

At the very same instant, the kunai in Hinata popped out and her eyes opened. Glancing once at her surroundings, her eyes widened, before sitting up quickly and running to Naruto's body.

There was no pulse as she clutched at her love, and his skin was cold. She wailed, rocking back and forth as she held his head to her. She froze when a hand touched her shoulder, and then another, both squeezing comfortably. She looked up with tear-stained eyes, into the face of one who looked just like Naruto, only older. The other hand belonged to a black-haired woman dressed in ANBU clothes, and a fox mask tied onto her left shoulder.

Then she brought her attention back to the man. He smiled sadly at her, and it was then that she saw the number 4 imprinted onto the front of his robes.

How'd you like that, huh? Don't yell at me, I have plans for Naruto, he isn't finished yet! ;)


	12. Chapter 12

Naruto

Chapter 12

89 reviews for 11 chapters! Almost to 100! Thanks for reading and reviewing, guys. As a reward…more story!

_Floating in white light, no feeling, no sense of being. Suddenly, a scream pierces the quiet. Not far from him, on the black side of limbo, two souls were being slowly ripped by the claws of demon-like creatures. A large echo resounds in his head_

_**Is this what you wanted boy?**_

Yes, thought Naruto, as he stared at his hated enemies, taking solace in the fact that they would be unable to harm anyone else for eternity. His heart soon grew heavy as he realized how long it would be before he saw his loved ones.

_**You are indeed very popular, boy.**_

'_What makes you say that?'_

_**Apparently the Kami of life has requested your soul be returned to your body.**_

But I haven't done anything worthy enough to be noticed by the Kami.

_Silence for a moment._

**Kami believes otherwise. He keeps spouting about having a surprise for his champion. Oh well, I suppose I must return you now. However, I do have a small surprise waiting for you in the living world.**

Hinata stared in shock as the fourth Hokage smiled at her reassuringly. "It seems to run in the blood, doesn't it Haruka? Sacrificing ourselves for the ones we love." The woman nodded, a sad smile on her face. "Indeed, though if you pull a stunt like that again, I'll kill you in the afterlife."

Arashi laughed sadly, as he watched Hinata clutch at his son's body. Then Shinigami spoke.

"**Your son is apparently very important to the Kami, Arashi. I have no idea what he's meant for in the mortal realm, but I suppose I can give his soul free of charge, due to the entertainment he's provided me."**

Arashi narrowed his eyes, "What are you talking about?" Shinigami grinned, "**Your legacy defeated Orochimaru and Kabuto entirely by himself. Then he told me to make their suffering last as long a I want." **

"He beat the snake bastard! Alright!" Arashi then began a very intricate dance that looked suspiciously like Jirayai's. Shinigami flinched before saying, "**Alright, that's enough. Here's his soul. Too bad, I have very few pure souls in my possession."**

With that, Shinigami reached down and a translucent image of Naruto appeared in his hand. The image slowly dropped towards the body, before sliding in.

Naruto's body heaved once, as he drew in a ragged breath. Instantly, he was surrounded by the rest of the girls, each of whom was asking him questions rapid-fire.

Arashi grinned, nudging his wife in the ribs. "Apparently our son is very popular with the ladies, dear." Haruka smiled, "Maybe too popular. Look at his neck."

Arashi did as he was bid, before doubling over, "Damn! He's got 7 of them! My own son has surpassed me!" (Chibi Arashi hides next to a tree, sulking.)

Shinigami eyed the spectacle with stoic amusement, but narrowed his eyes as a bright light broke through the clouds, shining directly on Naruto.

Naruto cursed, before painfully sitting upright and standing.

Then a pulsing ord of light began to travel down the beam of light, stopping a few feet from Naruto. It gave off one huge flash, before transforming into a person.

It was a man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties. He wore white robes similar to what the third Hokage had worn, but they seemed to shine with an unnatural light. The man frowned when he looked at himself.

"Shinigami, how come you get a much better entrance than I do?" The death god shrugged, "**Maybe because it's people fear death more than life."**

The two quickly sunk into what seemed an everlasting argument. Naruto's eye twitched dangerously, before he calmly _bonked_ Kami on the head. "Will you two shut the hell up and tell me what's going on?"

Arashi looked as if he was choking on his tongue, shocked that someone could be so stupid to attack a _god!_ Haruka attempted to hide her laughter with a sudden coughing fit, but failed miserably.

Kami's eye twitched, similarly to Naruto's. "you bastard! How dare you hit me!" he lashed out with a punch. A flash of orange later, and Kami found his fist suddenly stuck in his mouth.

"Mff! Whff thff fffk?" Shinigami burst out into laughter, rocking the whole village. **"Finally someone with enough gonads to take you on, Kami! This kid is something special!"**

With what looked to be some degree of pain, Kami pulled his fist from his mouth. "Yeah, yeah, fang face." Kami turned his attention to an irate Naruto. "So kid, how's it feel to be alive again?" Naruto shrugged, "Same as before, really, just with better scenery." Kami chuckled, "Too true. Well kid, I suppose you're wondering why I called you back?" Naruto nodded. "well, I've been watching your life from my post, and I am extremely displeased at the way the villagers have been treating you. Unfortunately, any direct intervention on my part is forbidden when it involves mortal situations like yours. Man does have free will, after all. But when you gave your soul up for the life of your loved one, I was able to do something. Anyways, here's the thing; I want you to make this village acknowledge you, and treat you with respect, that why I had shinigami also bring back two people I think you'll be very interested to meet."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Kami grinned, "You'll find out soon enough, don't worry. But, before I go, I want to give you something." He handed Naruto a very worn scroll, with a wax seal on it. "These are the _Tenshi_ techniques. I'm giving them to you, in hopes that you will continue to destroy demons in this realm. It's also in the hopes that in a few years, you'll make Hokage."

Naruto took the scroll and bowed respectively. Kami bowed back, before turning to Shinigami and nodding. They both disappeared in a flash of smoke.

Instantly, the darkness went away to reveal the cheerful sun. Naruto twirled the scroll, and then pocketed it. "That might be useful for later."

And then Hinata did something that no one expected. She walked up to Naruto…and slapped him. "How dare you! Did I give you permission to give yourself up for me? What made you risk your dream like that?" Naruto grabbed her hand when she attempted to slap him again and spoke in a forceful tone into her ear. "What made me risk it? I did it because to me, dreams are not as important as the precious people that are a part of the dream." Hinata blushed, a little of her old self returning.

Naruto smiled and kissed the top of her head, "Now come on, we have to find out what the surprise Shinigami left me was." Hinata snaked her arm around Naruto's waist, "I already know what it is." Naruto looked at her. "Tell me."

Hinata just grinned and tightened her hold on him, as if to keep him from doing anything stupid again. Naruto frowned, "Come on, tell me! I hate not knowing things!"

"Yeah, he's just like you, Arashi." Naruto narrowed his eyes as two figures walked up to him. the first was tall, with wavy blond hair, blue eyes, and white robes with the kanji 4 on them. The second was a woman, with long black hair tied in a pony tail that reached her lower back. She was dressed in ANBU clothing with a fox mask tied to her right shoulder. The most noticeable thing about her, though, was her eyes. They were green, with pupils in the shape of diamonds. Four lines extended from each pupil, making it look like a starburst. They both smiled when they saw him.

"So, Naruto, how is that seal holding up?" Naruto shrugged, "It's not there anymore." "What!" Naruto gave Arashi a long look, "She volunteered to leave the seal, and in doing so, made me a deal in which she gave me all of her power, which is locked away in her tails. Right now, I have seven tails. It actually surprised me how powerful Orochimaru was. It's not easy to kill a seven-tailed beast, and I nearly died fighting an eight-tailed baboon."

It was at that point that kyuubi came up behind him and bonked him on the head. "You idiot! If you hadn't had your chakra along with mine, you would have died, and then where would we be?" Naruto flushed and began to rub the back of his head. "Uh…oops?" a vein popped out on Kyuubi's forehead, and Naruto began to get a sense of impending doom.

"I take it you are Kyuubi?" The red-haired girl looked at the man who had sealed her. "Hmph, you have a lot of nerve, talking to your son as if you had done nothing. Do you even know what the village was like after you're death? I may have been sealed into your son, but I still retained my senses, which, unfortunately, were integrated into him. there were three different assassination attempts on him when he was barely 1! Wasn't it you who said that you wished Naruto to be treated like a hero?"

Arashi sighed while Haruka looked ready to kill. "Yes, I did wish for him to be a hero, however, if the people do not wish to do so, then it is impossible for the hokage to do anything about it. As a whole, a person by themself may be enlightened, but people together are ignorant, stupid, and easily scared."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "okay, right. Well, are you going to be resuming your post or take over Tsunade-obaa-chan's?" Arashi put on a shocked look, "Tsunade is Hokage? What happened to sarutobi?" "He was killed by orochimaru. After that, Sasuke uchiha left with the snake bastard under delusions of power, and I brought him back, with a hole the size of a grapefruit in my chest. _He_ came back with a bruised body and a scratched forehead protector due to my rasengan. After that, I was more or less kicked out of the village, so I went to a cave for training, and it was there that I got a lot of my power now. Thrre years later, I came back to the village. I beat most of the shinobis of the village in an all-out fight, knocking the bulk of them out with my ultimate level rasengan, and then dueled Hiashi, which I won, but barely. That got me the permission of the girls' parents to date them, for which I am glad, because otherwise, I would have gone mad long ago."

Arashi blinked, "Ultimate level Rasengan? My rasengan only had three stages, whats so special about yours?"

"I have one meant for killing certain demons," Naruto created his demon-killing rasengan, its red golw eery in the fading light. "and then I have my ultimate." Dispelling the red one, he created two normal rasengans, before putting them together and firing off the chakra placed into them.

When he finished, he turned to look at his father, who's eyed had gone wide, and was currently utilizing the puppy-eyes jutsu. "Can you teach me those?" "No." arashi sweat-dropped. "Why not?" "because, the ultimate levels of the rasengan are personalized. Its different for each person. Remember, I _am_ the one who discovered it."

Arashi sighed, before righting himself. "well, perhaps I should properly introduce myself, my name is Arashi Kazama, the fourth…"

"Dad. And she's mom. That's all I need to know."

Arashi blinked once, before looking at Haruka and breaking into laughter. "yeah, gets that from you, Haruka." The woman smiled before stepping forward and hugging her son. "Well, at least now I'll be able to protect you."

That statement caused an outburst of several girls, all of whom were saying that it was _their_ job to protect him.


	13. Chapter 13

Author update

I know that I haven't updated in over a month, but please don't be pissed. I've been busy at school, which, unfortunately for you guys, comes first. Now, I will continue the story, but I've also been working on a pet project of mine, and I hope it will be good.

I have been doing research for my story, by reading other stories, and something very sudden occurred to me. THERE ARE TOO MANY DAMN YAOI FICS!

This pisses me off to no end. I am a firm believer in het fics, but that doesn't make me a homophobe. I just think that perhaps less than 9/10 of the fics should be yaoi. You will never see any yaoi in any of my fics, partly due to mjy disgust of them, and the fact that it would never happen. I mean, I know Kakashi is a perv, but I don't think he'd even remotely entertain the notion of kissing Naruto. And, knowing Sasuke, the Uchiha bastard would cut his own lips off before even kissing Sakura. (Makes me wonder about him, hmm…) Anyways, that's it, so…

Soulthief2 out!


	14. Chapter 14

Naruto

Chapter 13

**Yay! I hit the 100 review marker. Though that's the best I've had for any of my stories, I secretly wished there were more. (sighs.) **

After retrieving a swirly-eyed Itachi from the side of a cliff, Naruto, his parents, and the girls all made their way to Konoha.

Arashi was outraged by what he saw there; people were staring at him as if he was a ghost, while at the same time throwing glares at Naruto, who Arashi could tell was wearing a mask of emotions. Haruka set a protective hand on Naruto's shoulder, not at all shocked at the tense muscles there. She narrowed her eyes at the fleeting shadows moving on top of the roofs that were the ANBU. She practically snarled when one of them landed in front of them when they were halfway to the tower. The ANBU was wearing a dirty white cloak, with a bear mask, but didn't look ready for a fight.

"Shishio, what is the meaning of this? How low has the village managed to get after 17 years?" The ANBU captain quickly fell to one knee, "My apologies, Uzumaki-san. I just panicked when I saw you with the demon there." A flash of golden light later, and Arashi was holding the nin's face mere millimeters from the hot grill of a shiskabob stall. "if I ever hear you insult my son again, I will personally ensure that you will never have kids in your lifetime. Am I understood?" The nin mumbled something. Growling, Arashi brought his face closer to the grill, "What was that?" "I'm…sorry…Hokage-sama." "That's better. Now, I'm going to talk to Tsunade about this, and rest assured, you _will_ be reprimanded for your actions." The nin sagged against the stall as he was dropped, eyes wide with fear. He had seen how protective Tsunade was of the boy. He was doomed.

They were about halfway to the tower when Jirayai popped up. He stared once at his student, before turning to Naruto. "You baka, what the hell did you do." Naruto's eye began to twitch, and he bonked his sensei. "Who are you calling a baka? You're the one that threw me off a cliff to get me to use Kyuubi's power! That, and anytime I wanted to train, you were off peeping!"

Jirayai's face darkened, "I am the legendary sannin Jirayai! Show me some respect, runt!" "I will when you earn it, ero-sennin!"

"What! Short-stuff!"

"open pervert."

"hyper-active chihuaha."

"Toad-licker."

A loud oooh! issued from the crowd before Jirayai began to creep towards Naruto, hands twitching. "Ahh! Back off Ero-sennin, don't make me use it!"

Curious, Arashi bent his head towards Sakura while watching his sensei chase his son. "Use what?" Sakura sighed, "It's a move he created by combining henge with Kage Bunshin. Just watch."

"You asked for it Ero-sennin! Harem no jutsu!" Immediately the street was full of scantily-cloud-clad Narukos each of whom cooed and began to rub themselves against Jirayai. Unfortunately, this caused a massive river of blood to appear, as every male in Konoha had gotten a nosebleed; even the unconscious Itachi, who was giggling pervertedly in his sleep.

"I knew it! Every male here _is_ a pervert!" Haruka threw a suspicious glance at Arashi who was unsuccessfully trying to hide his nosebleed. Arashi coughed lightly, "umm, Naruto? I might have to make that a kinjutsu, you know." His son gave him an exasperated lok, "You're too late. The old man made it one when I used it on him to get the scroll of seals. I did use it on Sasuke though, but he simply ignored it." Naruto put on a thoughtful look, "Though I _do_ think I caught him watching Lee's butt while he was training."

Lee began to choke at the very thought of being mentally undressed by Sasuke. Shino turned a little green.

Five minutes later, they were all standing outside Tsunade's door, watching as the two ANBU played rock-paper-scissors to see who would have to wake the hokage up. Eventually, the Falcon-masked one lost, and he hung his head in defeat, before entering the room they were guarding.

The tiger-masked ANBU chuckled evilly before he whispered, "That's the fourth time he's lost, but he hasn't figured out that I used a henge." As he was saying that, there was a loud crash, and the falcon ANBU was sent flying through the door, to land in a heap against the opposite wall.

Arashi smiled, "I see she hasn't changed much. Let's go in."

Inside they found Tsunade staring sleepily at the hole the ANBU had made, her desk groaning under the weight of paperwork. Blinking blearily, she asked, "Who's there?"

"It's me Tsunade-obaa-chan! I beat Orochimaru!" Naruto was then promptly smacked in the face by a vey large sack of money. "Congratulations, now go away and let me sleep." Naruto sweat-dropped, before yelling at her, "But obaa-chan, I summoned shinigami and…ow!"

"You dumbass! Why the hell did you summon the death god? What were you thinking!" She repeatedly beat Naruto on his head, keeping him in a headlock so as he could not escape. "And I told you not to call me obaa-chan!"

she prepared to launch one more painful punch at the boy she considered a brother, but was stopped when someone grabbed her wrist. "As much as I'm glad to see that someone cares for my son, I really must protest against your beating on him." "Your son? Just who the hell are you?" But then, Tsunade turned deathly white as the realization hit her.

She dropped Naruto on his rear end, much to the poor boy's discomfort, and slowly turned around.

Arashi grinned a shit-eating grin, "So you're the woman my son considers a sister, huh? Makes me feel even older." That earned him a smack from Haruka, who rolled her eyes before bowing to Tsunade. "I apologise for my husband and son's behavior hokage-sama, it seems that troublemaking runs in the family."

Tsunade was still staring at Arashi but seemed to catch the last part of her apology. "Oh, it's nothing really. I've gotten used to it by now. Though Naruto did tell me this one prank he pulled where he painted on the faces of the hokage monument. I laughed harder than I ever had before, especially when he made Sarutobi look like a woman."

Arashi snorted into his hand, the only sign that he wanted to burst out into laughter. Tsunade tapped her chin thoughtfully, "There is one thing I'd like to know, though. How did Naruto get to become such a good gambler? I mean, he could get a half a million pot from only 5 dollars. (me know no other money, save british pounds.)"

Arashi raised an eyebrow, "Really…"

Tsunade seemed to come to her senses all of a sudden. "Wait a minute…what are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead!" Arashi chuckled, "Well you see, Naruto here seems to have gathered the favor of both Kami and Shinigami. When one of his girlfriends Hinata was killed, he used the Shiki: Fuujin (spelling?) and gave up both his souls and that of the snake bastard's to Shinigami, though for Orochimaru's, he requested that the soul be slowly tortured for eternity." Tsunade nodded sagely, as that would probably be what she would have done herself. "Then Shnigami brought myself and Haruka back as compensation for Naruto's soul. Then Kami asked Shinigami to give Naruto his soul back. Shinigami didn't complain, as he had the snake bastard to play with forever. It was then that Kami selected Naruto for his champion, and gave him a scroll filled with Tenshi techniques."

Tsunade looked impressed. "Wow. Your son keep surprising me, Arashi. First he learns the Kage Bunshin in one night, then uses it to almost kill a chuunin before he's even a genin, he and his teammates take down a jounin level nin and his s-class 'tool', he survives his chuunin exam on his first try, making it to the finals, and then he learns summoning and the Rasengan in a week. You have yourself a juggernaut there, sir."

Arashi and Haruka grinned, "Oh good. I was hoping for a son like that. now, I want to know everything that's happened since I've been gone."

So, for an hour, they sat while Tsunade gave her story, and then another while Naruto gave his. However, Naruto left out some of the more painful bits, only to have them thrown in by Kyuubi, which earned her a frown, as if to say, 'Why did you do that?'.

Arashi was ready to kill when he heard what the villagers were like to Naruto, but a calming hand from his wife, soothed him enough to stop from ordering several hundred executions. Tsunade looked at the clock, "Well, it's just about time for me to go home. I suggest the lot of you do the same. It's good to see you again, Arashi, and when you see Kakashi, yell at him for me, please? He shouldn't have taught a technique like the chidori to that Uchiha brat." Arashi nodded, his joking face long gone.

As one they left the tower, Naruto being flocked by his girlfriends. Hinata was clutching one of his arms, while Kyuubi had a death grip on his other, while the others were trying to find some way to fit in between.

Slightly ahead of their beleaguered son, Haruka and Arashi were having a quiet cnversation. "Can't I kill just a few of them?" Haruka asked, her right hand twitching towards her sword. "No," replied Arashi. "they will have to pay for their actions by humiliation, when they realize that the boy they have spurned is in fact our son." "But what about all of his girlfriends?" "What about them? If anything, he has too few,though I did notice that the daughter of that ramen guy was looking at him. he needs all the love he can get, especially if he is now Kami's champion." Haruka sighed, "I guess you're right, it just doesn't seem fair to the girls that Naruto has all of them." "I really don't think they care, even if the subject was brought up. And just think, they're dating someone of practical royality!" "What do you mean, practical? Your father is the Fire Lord." "Yes, but one can't be hokage _and_ Fire Lord at once."

Haruka gave him a disbelieving look, "I bet you our son could." Arashi smiled and hugged her tightly, "Our son can do anything."

Ryo looked positively ecstatic that his former masters were there, and was extremely vocalized in his happiness. A large drop of sweat dropped down the back of Arashi's head and he whispered to his son, "Is it too late to kill me?"

Naruto threw the man a dirty look, before shaking his head. "If I have to put up with Ryo, then so do you." "Damn."Muttered Arashi, as his ears began to turn red as Ryo talked them off.

Naruto sighed as he lay back on the bed. In one day, he had managed to kill Orochimaru, lose Hinata, bring Hinata back, and get his parents back, while gaining the favor of the Kami. Smiling slightly, his last thoughts before falling asleep were that things just might be turning around for him.

Arashi smiled broadly as he watched his sleeping son. Haruka came up behind him and wrapped her arm around her husband. "He's pretty strong." Arashi nodded. "To think some one his age has been abused for most of his life, yet still manages to stay sane, and not plot revenge against the village, it's remarkable." Haruka sniffed and leaned her head against Arashi's shoulder. "Well, at least he has us to protect him now."

"What about us? We have to protect him too." Arashi turned to face the girls who had come up behind them, which, oddly enough, now included a heavily blushing Ayame.

"But of course, girls. You will always take precedence in protecting him. after all, he hasn't had anyone love him in a long time, not since I died." Kyuubi sniffled before putting on a stubborn face. "You better believe it. You may become our father-in-law soon, but that won't keep me from beating you up."

Arashi chuckled quietly, not wanting to wake his son up. "So, the marriage is final. By the way, how on earth did Naruto manage to get so many girls to love him at once?"

Everyone save Kyuubi blushed heavily. The former youkai just frowned, "Does it matter? We don't care how many wives he has, as long as he loves us. In fact, I might put a clause in the contract allowing him to marry more people while being married. That's how a harem works, after all." Kyuubi put on a thinking face as she and the rest of the girls walked past their soon-to-be relatives into Naruto's bedchamber, sliding under the covers with him. for those who couldn't reach him bodily, settled for one of his tails, which the hyuuga girl, Hinata, was currently hugging as if it were a stuffed toy with an adorable smile on her face.

Arashi closed the door gently, before he guided his wife to their quarters. "Yes, I think our son will be well cared for. Now, time to catch up on lost opportunities." And he kissed his wife passionately.

Naruto woke up early the next morning, to find himself in a bed filled with girls. Sighing, he made two lightning-fast seals, Kawamiri and Kage bunshin, before he found himself free of their grasp.

He took a quick shower before walking back into his room to find clothes folded neatly on his bed, a note lying on top of them.

Naruto-

Your mother and I have gone out to ask about being reinstated as jounins. I decided to let Tsunade keep her job as Hokage, seeing as she's doing such a fine job of it.

These clothes belonged to your grandfather, and he passed them on to me. Now I'm passing them on to you. When you wear them, everyone will recognize you as my son. It's time for you to be recognized, son. Never let anyone push you around anymore, show them that you are a ninja.

-Love,

Your father

Naruto smiled, pride filling his heart as he donned the garments.

They weren't much different than his old ones. An under-armor type stiffened shirt covering his torso, in a shade so red it was black in the right light. On the back there was the insignia of a fox, with what looked like 9 newly sewn tails around it. (I decided that a fox head would be the Kazama insignia. The tails represent Kyuubi.) Black cargo pants tucked into light combat boots, with three belts supporting it. One belt held up his pants, and carried his shuriken pouch, as well as the holsters for his kamas, while the other two dangled down in an x-shape, kunai nestled snugly in the leather holsters sewn into the leather. Black leather gloves covered his hands, with metal cups covering his knuckles. What made these gloves different than his last pair, however, was that his new pair had three stunted spikes set in between each knuckle. With those, someone could easily shatter a jaw in one blow.

His forehead protector was still a bandanna, but this time it carried the Uzumaki crest, a diamond with a line shooting out from each apex. He smiled at another few additions to the bandanna. Along each of the lines, there was a different crest. A white eye, a kunai, a blossom, a giant fan, the kanji for mind, and a steaming ramen bowl.

To his back he strapped two katanas, making sure that they were snugly set in their sheaths.

Right before he stepped out the door, he placed two wrist weights and two ankle weights on, and grabbed the scroll Kami had given to him.

**Hurray! Update done! Sory about the wait, it would have been done sooner, but I had to redo the chapter, cuz the first one sucked badly from me not having practiced. Well, anyways, my thanks to those of you who reviewed, and to those of you who haven't…shame on you! Receiving feedback from an audience is the best way for an author to get better. **

**Well, I have some good news. I got the results from my PLAN test in October. The PLAN test is sort of like the ACT's , but is just used to measure how much you need to study. Anyways, I did much better than I thought I did. I only missed one question out of thirty in Science, and received an average of 97 in all the others. My accumulative score range was 24-28, enough for me to get into the best college ever, Colorado school of Mines! I feel happy now. -purrs-.**

**Well I hope you enjoyed this because it may be the last chapter for a while. Btw, for all those who asked, I am now going to add Kurenai and Anko to the Harem, as well as some OC's later on. Cya!**

**-Soulthief2**


	15. Chapter 15

Naruto

**Yo…it's Soulthief2 again, back with another update. I wanted to thank all of you who read, and especially those of you who reviewed, cuz if I hadn't gotten any feedback, I would probably have stopped the story. Anyways, I got one or two negative reviews for my idea of an OC joining the Harem, so that's out. But Kurenai and Anko are definitely in. yes…they are hot…(Damn…males like me are so easy to manipulate…but I can't help it…they're hot…I have to add them.)**

**New Chapter-(Lost count) The Tenshi techniques**

Naruto yawned slightly as he stepped out of the house. The last few days had been hectic for him, and had exhausted him both mentally and physically. Groaning, he made his way to the public training fields, Tenshi scroll in hand.

Sitting on the grass, he undid the scroll and peered at its contents. The first technique was a ninjutsu called heavenly blade. Channeling your chakra into your hands, you formed a sword made of yellow light, and was considered totally fatal to any demon with 5 or less tails.

The 2nd, another ninjutsu, was one that seemed to have been tailored for his Hiraishin (spelling?). It was called Halo Hike, and it allowed him to briefly suspend himself on a solid platform of chakra in midair. Using this, he would be able to use his Hiashin no jutsu and bounce around his opponents like a pinball.

The last two things on the scroll were what looked like a instruction manual, and a catalog of the different types of demons.

Leaving the catalog section for later, Naruto instead turned to the manual. Inside it were the instructions on how to create your own heavenly jutsus, and what putting the heavenly seal in different orders with other seals could do.

Naruto grinned; this was exactly what he needed.

-several hours later-

True to his habits, Naruto quickly learned how to utilize his new jutsus, the only problem with them being that when he used Holy Hike he was at first crashing into the ground from the speed he was traveling at. However, he quickly learned that he could create a platform that even stood on its side in mid air, so he could launch himself horizontally.

Now he was currently trying to create his own jutsu, one where he would somersault in the air releasing chakra in spike-like waves from the middle of his back that would stretch out and cut his opponent. The move would then end in an axe kick that could crush a skull easily.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get his chakra to extend from his back more than a few feet, instead of his wanted 20 or 30.

Panting heavily, he stood up wearily and prepared for anoter try. Running to gain momentum, he leaped into the air, immediately gathering chakra and flipping through the necessary seals, finishing just as he got into his somersault. And that was when it clicked in Naruto, grinning as he tucked his body tighter into itself, he forced himself to spin faster. The results were fantastic; the centrifugal force from his spin forced the chakra out much farther, to his desired length. With a triumphant shout, he unfolded his body and landed with an axe kick to the wooden dummy he had been practicing on.

For a split second, nothing seemed to happen, until cracks slowly spread from the point of impact all along the dummy and then shattering the life-size mannequin into small fragments. Grinning triumphantly, Naruto sighed from exhaustion and made his way home for lunch, which his stomach had kindly reminded him of.

The girls were outraged at his beaten appearance and both they and his parents refused to allow him to the lunch table until he cleaned himself up. Lucky for him, Hinata volunteered to help him with his injuries. Smiling softly at her, he nodded and walked into his bedroom where he stripped off his shirt and sat down on the corner of the bed.

Hinata blushed slightly but was mostly saddened to see the massive bruises and numerous small cuts Naruto had managed to inflict on himself during his training. Biting her lip, she opened up a jar of medical cream and began to spread its contents over his back, trying not to notice how firm his muscles were, and how them seemed to relax at her touch, and how good they felt…

Blushing heavily now, Hinata gave out a small squeak while trying to get the perverted thoughts out of her head. Instead, she focused on the task at hand, as she spread the last of the cream over the last few cuts.

"Naruto-kun…I'm done." Naruto sat up straight from his previously slouched position. "Huh? Oh, thanks Hinata." Yawning, he stretched his arms out until they popped, while at the same time unknowingly giving Hinata a rather good view of his muscles. (Sorry, I can't help it. Even though I am a guy and technically not supposed to be into the really mushy stuff, I can't resist constantly seeing how cute Hinata and Naruto would be together. Maybe that's because I think Hinata is cute. Hmm…)

Poor Hinata slowly began to get a nosebleed, which thankfully stopped the same instant Naruto stopped stretching. Grinning widely, Naruto, still bare from the waist up due to the fact that the medicine was making his back wet, moved like lightning to the side of the girl who had helped him and picked her up around the waist, tossing her into the air slightly, and caught her just in time for her to wrap herself to him in shock. Naruto chuckled while Hinata pouted, but didn't remove herself from the boy. "You're mean!" She whined cutely.

"I know, but I'll make it up to you." "How?" For his answer, Naruto just kissed her soundly on the lips, leaving the poor girl dizzy from excitement.

"That's how. Now ket's get something to eat, and then I need to take a nap, all that training wore me out big time." With Hinata still wrapped around him, carefully avoiding any of the parts covered by the medicinal cream, he made his way to the dining room.

The instant he walked into the room, his nose twitched as jealousy from the girls quickly filled the air when they saw him and Hinata. Sighing, he gave the Hyuuga a quick peck on the lips before setting her down.

Arashi grinned at his son. "So apparently you were self-abusing yourself during your training." Naruto scowled at his father, "It happened because I was experimenting in combining two jutsus together." "Which ones?" "Holy Hike and Hiraishin. Holy hike allows me to make a platform of chakra temporarily anywhere I want, kind of like walking on air. But anyways, using this, combined with Hiraishin, the scroll stated that a competent Shinobi could easily kill up to 20 men in just under 3 seconds."

Arashi nodded, "yes, that was my initial problem with the Hiraishin, it was impossible to turn. However, with your technique from that scroll, you could totally skip the need for turning and instead rebound to attack directly. Clever."

Naruto shrugged, before he began shoveling the ramen that was his lunch into his mouth faster than the eye could see.

Haruka lifted an eyebrow at the display, before turning to face her husband who was setting a pace that rivaled Naruto's. Sakura sighed, "At least now we know where he got it from."

**Sorry for the Short chapter, I just ran out of ideas. Anyways, Anko and Kurenao will be joining the harem in the next chapter, which I am aiming to be like, 9 pages long or something to make up for this short one. BTW I need animals to use for demons. Give me their # of tails too,and PLEASE BE SERIOUS! Anyone who helps will get public acknowledgement from me, and I will refrain from having to sic my 150lb dumb-as-a-rock one tailed Chocolate ladrador demon dog on you.**


	16. Chapter 16

Naruto

Chapter ?

**Hello again my (hopefully) faithful readers. Anyways, the plans for this chapter are…two additions to the harem, one or more demon fights, and the reappearance of someone…someone evil…someone sinister…someone who looks at men's butts in green spandex. Btw, I'm looking for additions for Naruto's harem, after all, harems can have up to 1000, which is the max that I've heard. Shizune is a possibility, but not tsunade, unfortunately. She's a mother-like figure.**

Despite the overwhelming affection he was receiving constantly was good, Naruto, after several weeks of just simply training, easily became bored. At 17, he had already completed more missions than almost any other shinobi in the village, even Kakashi. He yearned for some way to test his strength, to become stronger, to prove himself.

It was in this state of mind that he woke one day, nestled between the _clothed_ forms of Hinata and tenten. Sighing, he tried to get up gently, only to be stopped when Hinata and Tenten gripped him tighter, keeping him where he was. Groaning softly, he fell back on the bed, watching with amusement when Tenten mewled softly, rubbing her head against his shoulder, like he was some teddy bear. (Aww…)

It would be two more hours until he was finally able to extract himself from his admirers, carefully avoiding Sakura, Temari, Ayame, and Ino, who were also sleeping in the bed.

Taking a shower, he quickly dressed, and headed out the door, into weather that reflected his mood. They sky was an iron grey, with small streaks of black running through. Occasionally, flashes of lightning showed through, followed quickly with rolling thunder.

Little to know that today would be the day in which his life would take an interesting and exciting turn.

At first, the feeling was so far away, it was hard to identify, but, as the source got closer, Naruto became more and more convinced of what he was sensing. Abruptly, he turned to the person nearest him, who happened to be Kurenai. "Kurenai-san! Quickly, evacuate this part of the village and alert the Hokage. Sasuke uchiha is on his way."

Kurenai just stood there stunned. Naruto had just been walking peacefully, and then randomly spewed out some nonsense about the Uchha traitor coming. "What the hell are you talking about? Have you lost your mind? If Uchiha were on his way I would be able to feel it, and I don't…" her eyes widened noticeably and she instinctively turned to where the chakra was coming from, but Naruto shoved her away. "Just do as I told you Kurenai-san! If you don't hurry there will be a lot of dead people soon."

Shaking off her confusion, kurenai immediately poofed to the nearest ANBU and delivered Naruto's cryptic message. Within 5 minutes, the square Naruto had been standing in was completely deserted.

It was at that same time that Sasuke arrived. The years apart had not been kind to the Avenger. Scars criss-crossed his face, and his eyes were devoid of all emotion, sure signs of a killer who was too used to killing.

"What do you want, you bastard?" Sasuke's face contorted, as an insane smirk marred it's scarred surface. "Isn't it obvious, dobe? I want to fight you, so I can become stronger and kill my brother. Last I heard, you killed Orochimaru. My brother was only slightly more powerful than my old sensei, so if I beat you, then I am assured of victory against him."

Naruto shook his head, "Nothing is as it seems, Sasuke. Remember Kakashi-sensei's line, 'look underneath the underneath'?" Sasuke snorted. "I don't care what drabble you're spouting. If you won't attack, then I will."

And with speed that shocked naruto, Sasuke appeared in front of him, smashing his face with a roundhouse kick. The force of the impact sent Naruto sprawling several feet, but the blond Shinobi was not to be defeated so easily. "Seems like you've gotten stronger, Sasuke-bastard. Too bad it was for something that could be explained as a simple misunderstanding." Naruto spat some blood from his mouth as he stood to his full height, facing Sasuke with piercingly blue slitted eyes.

Sasuke ignored Naruto's words, instead choosing to attack again. Again, he caught Naruto with a punch, this one to the gut, but Naruto wasn't without his own abilities. With lightning speed, he grabbed the traitor's wrist, and flipped him over his back smashing him into the paved street, forming a large crater. As Naruto prepared to raise him up again, Sasuke twisted, coming up behind Naruto and sending the blond flying into a house with enough force to level it.

Sasuke smirked at the pile of rubble where a house had once stood. If that was all the dobe had, then maybe his brother wouldn't be as much of a challenge as he had originally thought…

Then the rubble exploded out, sending shards of stone and plaster whitstling through the air as Naruto emerged from beneath, wreathed in red chakra, red, slitted eyes narrowed at his enemy, clawed hands twitching and 7 tails swirling behind him.

"Sasuke Uchiha, for crimes against the village hidden in the leaves, for assaulting your fellow shinobi with the clear intent to kill, and for the worst crime of all, abandoning your teammates, I sentence you to death."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes predatorily towards his former friend, now self-proclaimed executioner. "Do you really think that that pathetic power boost will save you, much less allow you to beat me? You are sadly mistaken." With that, he activated his curse seal, still active even after Orochimaru's death.

The two charkas filled the square, black and red, swirling and snapping, as if the two powers were attacking each other.

Halfway to the Hokage's tower, Kurenai felt the two Chakra's suddenly jump exponentially. She gasped and turned around, to see that the area she had left not 10 minutes ago was now awash in chakra, red and black. The two appeared to be evenly matched…

"Hey Kurenai. Nice light show, huh?" Anko puffed into existence next to the genjutsu specialist, her voice cheerful, but her eyes hooded as she watched the powers clash.

Kurenai swallowed hard, "It's frightening, how much strength these two have." Anko threw kurenai a sharp look, "Who's fighting?" "Uzumaki and uchiha." Anko's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and she gripped Kurenai's arm painfully. "Come on," She hissed, "We have to go ­now! The last time these two fought they tore up the land like nothing else!"

Kyuubi's eyes snapped open when she felt the familiar power of her chakra beng used. She immediately wondered why Naruto would use it, but her question was answered when she felt Sasuke's perverted power peak. "Damn." Hurriedly, she woke the household up, and they sprinted across town, hopefullyin time to prevent anything bad from happening to the one they loved.

The two just stood there, facing each other, not moving a single muscle, as if simply twitching could cause the world to explode. Then a leaf spun between them, floating gently to the floor.

Instantly, the two launched at each other, both snarling, though Naruto's was a bit more intimidating. 5 inch canines can have that effect.

Their collision was explosive, and the force of it was enough to actually halt the rain that had begun to fall from hitting them for a mere second.

Time seemed to move in slow motion for Naruto, as he ducked under a punch, and sending one of his own back. When that was blocked, he quickly pivoted on a heel and attacked with a downward heel kick.

Sasuke blocked that, too, but was sent skidding a few feet back. Irritated, Sasuke shook the numbed hand before charging up his chidori.

Naruto stepped to the side, barely dodging the strike, though it did manage to draw a small line of blood from his torso.

It was then that he saw his opportunity. One quick hand movement down, and he shattered the bones in Sasuke's arm.

"Hokage-sama! We have an emergency! Naruto and Sasuke are fighting in the city!" Tsunade's sleeping form gave a little snort. "Tell the damn brat to kick the uchiha's ass for me. Now go away, I've got paperwork to do."

Large sweatdrops formed on both Anko and Kurenai. That had helped.

Deciding that further 'conversation' with the hokage would most likely produce painful results, the two jounin simply left her office, heading back towards the battlesite.

Anko licked her lips. Noticing this, Kurenai asked, "What are you thinking about?" Ako smiled, "I was just thinking of how good Naruto looks. Mmm… I could just eat him up."

Kurenai gasped, and desperately tried to hide her blush as well. It was true, after his training, Naruto had come back looking like a sex god, and now had nearly every girl in Konoha after him. however, he ignored them pointedly, and instead focused on his select few girlfriends, one whom was her student , Hinata Hyuuga.

It was rumored that Naruto had a necklace around his neck of wedding rings for him from all of the girls. That was what had spawned the second rumor that Naruto wasn't a player, but that the girls were willing to share him, and had even formed themselves to act like his harem.

Anko noticed Kurenai's blush. "Aha1 so, I'm not the only one who's considering pedophilia! Wait a minute, from what I understand, his birthday is in a few months… hurray! I won't need to get arrested, as he will turn 18 in a few months. I can stand only being able to masturbate until he turns 18."

Kurenai choked. Her friend was a crazy nut.

Sasuke growled in annoyance, but gripped his broken limb and with a sickening wrench, re-set the bone, before performing a healing jutsu.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto stepped back a bit. After nearly half an hour of bone-crushing fighting, the two of them had only a few minor wounds, with Sasuke's arm being the first serious one. Naruto had been relying on that limb being crippled in order for him to perform his next attack.

Sasuke once again returned his attention to his opponent. "So, you were saying something about being my executioner? Well, I must say so far you're doing a bang-up job of it, dobe. Clearly, you should stop. After all, you'll only end up failing, like you failed all of your life."

That did it. Naruto growled dangerously, only his subconscious noting that his friends and lovers had arrived.

Kyuubi smiled grimly as Sasuke put Naruto down. "That dumbass just signed his death warrant." Temari turned a quizzical eye to the red-haired girl, "Huh?"

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to fully understand, but Naruto has constantly been undermined ever since he had been born in this village, and so it is his dream to be recognized by the whole village, something which has only recently begun. However, he has always been beaten by Sasuke in everything, save for the battle at the Valley of the End. It reaaly gets under Naruto's skin when someone calls him a failure."

"**That's it, uchiha, you're going down! Naruto Special: Pinball combo!"**

In a flash, Naruto disappeared, using the technique that mads his father famous. Less than half a second later, Sasuke was sent soaring into the sky, before being sent back down to earth. For a whole minute, it seemed as is some invisible spirit was yanking Sasuke by his collar around the town.

When the attack ended, Sasuke was still syanding, but only barely. Massive welts and bruises covered his body, and blood was flowing into his eyes from a cut above his eye.

Naruto smirked, "So you'e still standing. It's a bloody miracle. But let's see if you can handle this one.

Naruto Special: Chakra Saw!"

Flipping into the air, Naruto spun quickly, releasing chakra from all of the pores of his body. For Sasuke, the blades of Chakra felt like whips covered in lye, each drawing huge gashes in his skin.

Growling, the Uchiha Avenger raised his arms to block the additional chakra blades, but the only rslt was his fingers being cut off.

The boy didn't have time to scream in pain however, as Naruto's foot crashed into the top of his skull, killing him instantly.

Naruto dropped to the ground, panting heavily, sweat coming down in buckets from his face. Even some of his wounds were still open; his overuse of the red chakra had caused a momentary lapse in his healing process. Then the real exhaustion hit.

Grunting once, he fell to his knees and blacked out.

Wiping the drool from the side of her mouth, Tsunade smiled as she watched through the crystal ball at her otouto (correct?). She had no doubt that he would be able to win, even if he had collapsed from Chakra loss afterwards. Then, with a heavy sigh, she turned her attention to the paperwork in front of her. 'Damn this evil job…'

When naruto next woke, the storm had cleared, and pale sunlight drifted through the windows of his room. Groaning, he sat up slowly, his ribs still bruised from his fight.

"You really shouldn't be moving, you know." Naruto turned his head in the direction of the voice. It was Anko, the crazy, sadistic jounin who had been in charge of their Chunin exams. Naruto grinned, "It doesn't matter, if I don't move, I'll probably go mad from boredom, even if I am in my own home." With that said, he gingerly got himself out of bed, wincing as his ribs protested.

Anko crooked an eyebrow, "You got a thing for pain, Naruto?" The blond shot her an ugly look, but didn't say anything. Anko sighed, "You really are stubborn, you know. I can't decide if that's a good trait for a boyfriend or not."

That _really_ drew Naruto's attention. "Boy friend? What the hell are you talking about?" Anko grinned evilly, "Kurenai and I decided that we were going to join your harem. Don't worry, we already got it past with the others, they support us fully."

Naruto began knocking his head against his bedpost, wondering what in the hell he was going to do with all of these girlfriends. He was in it deep.

Kurenai sat nervously among the other members of Naruto's harem, as well as his parents. The girls she might have been able to handle the scrutiny of, but having the Fourth as your potential father-in-law was kind of unnerving. Especially when his wife was much scarier than he was.

The black-haired woman was practically dissecting her with her eyes, as if looking for the slightest imperfection in the woman. Kurenai fidgeted again, her nerves becoming even more high-strung, until she thought that she might snap and begin groveling on the ground. She was saved by the very object of her affection. "Mother, you really must stop doing that, it scares people."

Haruka turned a pouty face towards her son, "But it's so much fun! Most of my opponents never live long enough for me to use this face on them." "You could go work for Ibiki." "Now there's an idea I like!"

Kurenai sweat-dropped at the woman's enthusiastic reply to the offer. 'What the hell kind of family have I joined?'

To Naruto's dismay, he had found out that he had been asleep for two days, while all of his chakra replenished, and so had vowed to make up for the lost time. The old man working at Ichiraku's could have died happy as he saw almost 100 bowls stacked up in front of him, compliments of Naruto's voracious appetite.

After lunch, a demon, the first one in almost months, attacked the village, looking to absorb the kyuubi's essence. Naruto's chakra sword made short work of it, though it left him feeling even more drained than it should have, as he was still recovering.

That night, as he got into his bed, he was surprised when the girls, save for Anko and Kurenai who still had to pack their stuff up and move in, turned off the lights before coming to bed. He quickly found out why when Hinata snuggled up close to him on his left side, and kyuubi on his right. Both were stark naked. Suppressing a shout, Naruto opened his mouth to protest, "What are yo…." He was silenced by Ino and Tenetn, who crawled on top of him. "Shh…just enjoy it. We're not going to do anything perverted to you. For a while at least."

Damn.


	17. Chapter 17

Naruto

Chapter 17

**Yo! Look, I've emerged from my hibernation just in time to provide my readers with another chapter! Actually, this is like, the 7th draft of chapter 17, because I've been unable to start a chapter of anydecent quality recently, but that might be due to the fact that this is the first time I've written in several weeks. **

**I know that the last chapter was somewhat…odd, but please try to hang in with me, I'm straining my brain for ideas, and I've decided to let the public vote for what will happen.**

**Naruto leads an army against the denizens of hell**

**Sound gets a powerful new leader with silver hair 'hint hint'.**

**And for those who think that Naruto is overpowered, he isn't. his father can still kick his ass, as well as the other Akatsuki members. Also, the marriage won't take place until I get the readers' opinions on when it should it be. Personally, I want to make it sooner, but it's up to you guys (and girls).**

**Onto the story!**

17 year old Naruto stood opposite his father, sweat dripping off of him like miniauture rivers down a mountain. Arashi, however, barely had a smudge on him as he grinned foxily at his son.

The two of them had been training heavily for the past few weeks, as a result of the still on-going war with sound. Despite the fact that their leader was dad, the oto nins still persisted in continuing to fight, their numbers ever increasing as more and more missing-nins joined them, seeking amnesty.

Naruto grinned suddenly and flashed out of sight, leaving behind just a trail of red and gold chakra. Arashi smirked before side-stepping his son's move and delivering a chop to the back of his neck, sending the boy into the ground.

"Itai." It was more of an exhausted statement than an exclamation as the blond boy painfully picked himself up from the hole he had been driven into. Arashi smiled, "Good job, you've almost got the speed down. Tomorrow we'll work on your accuracy and flexibility in the maneuver." Naruto nodded once before sighing and started to sway on his feet.

He was caught by Temari before he hit the ground though, and he smiled tiredly at her before passing out. The kunoichi threw her soon-to-be father-in-law a dirty look. "You didn't have to push him _this_ hard, you know. He does have his limits, even with the Kyuubi's chakra."

Arashi shrugged, "it was his idea, besides, breaking point training strains your body to its ultimate abilities, and thus you get the most benefits from it."

Life in the uzumaki manor had been for the past few weeks, at best, chaotic. Everywhere Naruto turned, one of girlfriends was there, and they always seemed to want something, help with opening a jar, getting something that was too high for them to reach, even the spontaneous kiss, though he really didn't mind those too much.

His main complaint was that he was always tired. Between the extreme training he was doing, mixed in with the paperwork he had somehow been put in charge of for his clan, and what seemed to be his ever-decreasing sleep hours, his body was wearing down.

This fact did not go unnoticed by his fiancées however, and they quickly had a meeting after Teamri put the object of their affections into his bed.

"He's working himself far too hard. If he keeps this up, there could be potential health problems." Stated Kurenai. Tenten snorted, "Good luck trying to get him to stop. He wants to protect everything in this village, and will continue to work as hard as he can to become strong enugh to do so." Hinata smiled, "Protective to a fault."

"Yes, a fault, but an admirable one at that. Personally I'm envious of him. He tries everything to make sure we're happy and safe, but we can't do anything for him." There was a small pause after Sakura made that statement. The girls all seemed to be contemplating something but it wasn't clear what. That is, until Ino spoke up, "What about a vacation? Not outside of the village or anything, but simply a break from the training and paperwork for a week or two. Go to some parties or something."

They all thought that it was a wonderful idea and immediately began to make plans.

Arashi smiled as he turned his ear away from the door to face his wife. "he's lucky to have them. I was hping they would be able to get him off of his current schedule." Haruka nodded, before wrapping her arm around her husband's waist, "Yes, he is lucky, and so are they. It is a rare thing nowadays to see people so devoted to each other." "Good thing we can be counted in that category." "Indeed. Now, you must be sore after all that training. How about a quick dip in the hot springs out back?" Arashi's face reddened in a blush. Perverted woman.

When Naruto next woke, he was still tired, but was determined to get working again. The odd thing though was that he was unable to locate any of his training gear he _knew_ he had thrown on his floor. His training clothes were also gone, as was all scent of them.

Growling slightly, he stepped out into the hall, nearly knocking Anko over. "Oops, sorry Anko-chan! Didn't mean to knock you. Hey, have you seen any of my training stuff around, I need to get back to work." Anko blushed slightly as he continued to hold her, but still managed to answer his question, "Well the others and I were worried at the pace you were working at, so we decided you needed a small vacation. For two weeks, you aren't allowed to train at all. At this, Kyuubi said that she would know if you were training or not."

Naruto groaned and smacked himself in the head, mumbling something about troublesome kitsunes, before replying, "Thanks Anko-chan." He kissed her chastely on the lips before heading towards the kitchen where the smells of lunch were wafting everywhere. Anko simply stood there touching her lips, as she was still totally vulnerable to his kisses, having received none before.

Naruto scowled at the girls when he entered the kitchen. Each had an insanely innocent look on their faces, clear indications of their guilt. "Where has all of my gear gone?" Ino began whistling idly, not meeting his eyes, as Kyuubi answered, "we hid it where you won't be able to find it. You've been working yourself too hard, and you're gouing to hurt yourself soon. Therefore, we have imposed a mandatory 2 week vacation, where you are to do nothing but relax. You aren't even allowed to help around the house."

"What! I can't have you guys do all the work, it's not fair! And I need to continue to train because the Akatsuki are still out there, not to mention more demons, plus the Sound nins! I have to get stronger so I can beat all of them without having to worry about anyone being hurt!" Sakura frowned, "Admirable as that is, honey, it's unconceivable. We are in the middle of a war, people are bound to be hurt, even killed."Naruto lowered his head, "I know,…it's just that…" then he mumbled something unintelligible.

Tenten got a dangerous look on her face and she began to finger a kunai. "What was that?" Naruto, sensing his impending doom, jumped back, holding a very conveniently-placed kit in front of him as a shield. Needless to say, Kit didn't appreciate that very much. "I just said that all of those people who would die wouldn't be my precious people."

Tenten immediately softened, and, sighing, said, "You should know by now that we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves, dear. We don't need a guardian angel." "I know…I just don't want any of you to get hurt with me not being strong enough to prevent it." "Don't worry so much. Just relax and enjoy your vacation." Said Kurenai as she led him to his chair and sat next to him, arm around his waist.

After lunch, Naruto officially started his vacation, which began with him getting his ass whooped several times in Soul Calibur III. He had, however, developed a strong preference for Nightmare in the game, while the others chose fast, less powerful characters that were hard to hit.

After that, they went outside to play some basketball, which, with his height, Naruto excelled in. by that time, the others had their own things to do, so Naruto just sat down wth his new Tenshi scrolls and began to read, being sure he didn't accidentally begin to practice them.

Several hours later, he ate a quick dinner by himself in the library, before finally putting up the various books and scrolls he had read. Feeling more relaxed, but still a bit stiff, he mad his way to his room, where he was greeted with the sight of his girlfriends in brief bathrobes all huddling around his bed. "Hey, what's the occasion?" He asked.

Ayame grabbed his arm before dragging him to the bed. "we're giving you a massage. Now, take off your clothes so we can get started." Acutely aware of the fact that he was surrounded by members of the opposite sex, nonetheless, hot members, he was reluctant to do as he was instructed, but, noticing the number of evil eyes directed towards him, he finally consented.

He wasn't but halfway through the massage before he fell asleep.


	18. Chapter 18

Naruto

Chapter 18

**Oh my god, I'm still alive. My deepest apologies to those who have been waiting for me to update. I've already updated my other Naruto story, _The left Hand of Kami_, so, you can read that, if you want. Anyways, enough chatting, you're here to read. Oh, I do have a favor to ask you, though. I need your votes on the topics below. If there is a lemon, I will probably have to make my own yahoo group to post it there, seeing as I'm still 2 years too young to be writing or reading at AFF. Whatever. **

**Marriage next chapter-**

**Marriage a few more chapters away-**

**Lemon-**

**No lemon-**

Naruto was fine during the first week of his vacation. He was able to relax fully, read some more of his tenshi scrolls, and play around with his girlfriends (not like that you hentais!). however, for the second week, things started to go downhill. He became antsy, constantly jittering around, as if he had been storing his energy up for months. He had to find an outlet, and usually that was training.

It was only a matter of time before he snapped.

It was two days before his vacation ended, and Naruto was showing his usual signs of pent-up energy; his knee was bouncing up and down, his fingers constantly fidgeting, and his whole body seemed to quiver. It was hard for him to concentrate on the conversation at the dinner table.

"So, tell me, were any of naruto's pranks any good?" Arashi said this with the most ridiculous grin on his face, Haruka just rolled her eyes. All of them were sitting at the table, Arashi and Haruka sitting next to each other, while all of the other girls were trying to get as close as possible to Naruto, not that he noticed.

Sakura sighed, "Yes, unfortunately. It seems he had an inbred talent for it. You wuldn't happen to know where he got that from, would you, Arashi-san?" the blond gulped loudly, as his face broke out sweating. "Ah…I'm afraid I don't Sakura-chan. Nope, absolutely no idea whatsoever."

Haruka snorted, "Bullcrap. I still remember when Sarutobi made you clean the hokage monument after you painted the first and second to look like women." Arashi turned red, as kyuubi began to chuckle. "Oddly enough, Naruto did the same thing, but he gave Arashi the funniest looking musctache, it looked like something out of a Hercule Poirot mystery movie."

Arashi glared at his son, who grinned sheepishly back. "What, I wanted attention!" Arashi growled, "you could have tried using a different outlet than painting me to look like Penguin Man! (Hercule Poirot)." At that point Haruka just smacker her husband over the head with her chopsticks. "Shut up and eat dear. I don't want this conversation to last through tonight. You and I have to make up for lost time."

Naruto couldn't believe what his mom just said. Of course the truly frightening thing was not that she had said it, but that she had managed to keep a completely straight face through it all. "Aaagh! My mother's a pervert!"

Finally, Naruto's vacation was over, and he threw himself into training again, only this time he didn't stop for sleep at all. Night and day, in an effort to relieve his pent-up energy, he worked, and it showed. He was stronger, faster, and smarter than he had been before, but it wasn't enough.

According to Itachi, the other members of Akatsuki were extremely powerful, certainly more powerful than himself, and, even with kyuubi's chakra, Naruto wouldn't stand a chance.

After a week of his insane training schedule, Naruto was joined by his father and Jiraiya, who began to shape Naruto from a lump of colorless rock into a diamond. Almost literally. He was training in the iron Body technique, qhich involved him training his body to be able to withstand hits of extreme power. And the only waay to do that was to have two sadistic, evil teachers tie you up and beat on you for hours.

Naruto groaned. The constant abuse his father and the super-pervert had inflicted on him was painful, but he tried to push the pain from his mind. Pain was not something he needed right now. Pushing himself to his feet, he said goodbye to his teachers and headed lower on to the field to practice his other techniques.

All of this was being observed by his girlfriends, who were watching anxiously as their love continued to abuse himself physically and mentally in his training. Hinata, by far the most sensitive of them, was almost at tears as she watched what Naruto was doing to himself. Temari was now beginning to understand how the boy was able to beat Gaara, while Tenten looked a little sad. Sakura was frowning a lot. She was a medic, and knew that what Naruto was doing was horrible, but she didn't stop him. She didn't think she could…

Kurenai and Anko seemed impassive, and Ino was scowling.

A month after the end of his vacation, Naruto had improved tremendously, his powers surpassing even the sannins. It still wasn't enough, though, as Jiraiya had trouble with simply two Akatsuki, and Naruto could barely beat Jiraiya without using his other chakra. That was why he found himself in front of Tsunade, kit wrapping himself around his feet.

"You want me to ask Gaara to come here to konoha for an unknown amount of time, so the two of you can train, in preperation for fighting the strongest nins on Earth?" Naruto nodded. Tsunade just stared at him for a second before, "Okay, it's done. He should be here in about a week." "Thank you, Tsunade." As Naruto turned to leave, tsunade asked, "When are planning on setting the marriage?" "It's too early to think of that. I want to make sure I'm alive to enjoy being married before actually tying the knot. Getting killed after just getting married would kinda be pointless, wouldn't it?"

Tsunade shrugged, "it's not up to me. I suggest you talk to the girls about it. See what their opinions are, then sort it out." Naruto sighed once before leaving the room.

Just as Tsunade had said, a week later, Gaara showed up, and after that, hardly anything was seen of the blonde. He was never at any of the meals, and so it left the table unusually quiet and empty without his presence, and the girls steadily became more withdrawn. They barely even talked anymore, and if they did, then it was only in small sentences.

Naruto looked across the fire towards Gaara. If training with his other teachers had been hard, it was pure torture training with the redhead. But Naruto could tell he was improving, and it was at a rate he was comfortable at, too. Then, a sudden question came to him, "Gaara, can I ask you something?" The sand user nodded, "well, Tsunade gave me some advice when I requested for your presence here. She asked me when the marriage was going to be, and I told her that I didn't want to getmarried until I was sure that I would be able to enjoy it with the girls. But if I got married before beating the Akatsuki, then I could die, and the girls would be all alone. Do you know what to do?"

The redhead thought for a moment. "I think you should get married beforehand. That way, you can enjoy your time with my sister and the others, and if you die, then you will die knowing that you fulfilled one of their wishes. However, if you die fighting the Akatsuki, then you will have died, not even leaving them the legacy of their wedding to you. But, if you get married to them beforehand, and live, then you will just be able to finally relax and enjoy yourself."

Naruto nodded, "Thanks, Gaara."

Two months after Gaara had arrived and the two of them had begun training together, Naruto and Gaara went back home. Naruto's reception was frosty, if not a little hate-filled. The girls were angry at him for leaving, and not taking anytime to relax. Seeing as it was nearly time for him to go to bed anyways, Naruto left the girls alone and kissed his mother good night.

That night, he was alone in his bed.

His 'punishment' seemed to be neverending. Whenever he tried to apologise, they would give him the cold shoulder. Slowly but surely, Naruto could feel himself slipping back into his previous psyche, his mask.

When the demons began to show up again, his fights with them wereunusually brutal, and not just for the demons. If wasn't a rare sight to see the blonde walking heavily injured down the market street. This continued for another month until finally, when he had gotten up one morning to put his necklace on, he discovered something very important. The rings that had been hanging from it were gone, as well as any trace of his fiancées.

Shocked, he sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, the necklace falling from his limp fingers. Kit and his mate, Kyrie, walked up to him, sensing his despair. Mewling softly, Kit rubbed himself against Naruto's leg in an attempt to cheer him up. It didn't work.

Swallowing hard, Naruto put the necklace back on his dresser, as well as removing his bandanna, the one with all of the crests on it. His family, save for the immediate variety, had abandoned him, because he had been working too hard.

He felt slightly cheated, in that he had been training so that he would be able to protect them better. Then they just up and leave him. he wanted to cry.

He almost did, but frowned and wiped the oncoming tears away. Fine. If they didn't want to be with him, then he didn't need to be with them either. Unbeknownst to him, when he thought that, his face became emotionless, and his eyes cold and hard.

The village was shocked by the change in Naruto, even the ones that hated him. they had been used to the hyperactive, ramen-obsessed idiot. Now he was cold, unfeeling, and spent as much time as possible away from the ramen stand.

He accepted only the most dangerous missions, completing them in record time. His money grew, though he didn't care as he never used it for anything. His reputation world-wide, however, was growing.

In almost every village, there were tales told of a blonde shinobi from Konoha who dealt with his opponent in the most vicious and bloody ways. He would throw himself into the most insane situations, not caring about his well-being.

He gained the nickname 'Demon of Konoha'.

Kyuubi was a mess. Ever since she had agreed to go along with the others and break off the engagement, Naruto had changed. The others had agreed with her, and had begun to regret their decision.

Their love never smiled anymore, and would do anything to get out of the village and into a fight. It was almost as if he was trying to get into so many combat situations that he would eventually be too exhausted and get killed.

They had broken it off simply because they were tired of his not listening to them, and spending all of his time away from the house. Unwittingly, they had also taken away the one thing that was keeping him focused and happy. In truth, they had created the monstrosity that was now Naruto.

The demon-turned girl chewed her nails nervously as she watched her ex-lover from afar. She knew that the others were around as well, just as intent on seeing what Naruto had become. He was like ice, he didn't acknowledge any of them. He knew they were there, of that she was sure. But, even when he later walked right by her, she never even got glanced at. She looked at the others, despair written all over her face.

What had they done?

Hey, it's me. I'm sorry for the short chapter, but I kinda ran out of ideas to use. The next one will be longer, I promise. Also, I have decided that this story will end at a majestic 25 chapters. Reason being, I can feel that this story is coming to a close, both in writing and in my head. Therefore, I will take the time to thank you all for reading this story so far, and for your great reviews, which have kept me afloat.

**As for this chapter, I think it may have been a shock to you to have the girls break up with naruto. Don't worry, my brain is plotting. There will be a happy ending. **

**Soulthief2 out. **


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

**Alright, now that you guys know I'm still alive, there are some things I need to address. First of all, I have received some very… odd reviews. To tell the truth, some of them don't make a whole lot of sense, and I don't know what to think of them. Also, for those of you who are glad that the girls broke up with Naruto, well, …too bad, they will get together again, but not until they see what he's become. A little hint, this chapter will probably be a little dark, with a Naruto you aren't used to. Also, I chose not to write a wedding. At the end of this story, now scheduled to be at 25 chapters, there will be an epilogue. The future will be revealed there. But for now, Naruto will concentrate on killing the Akatsuki and the rival demons, of which, only one has been killed, the baboon, out of probably 5. Naruto's eighteenth birthday is coming up, so he'll get his eighth tail. **

**Also someone asked about his Tenshi techniques. I haven't forgotten them, I just decided to keep them a secret. So far, I think, the only ones you know about are the heavenly blade and the heavenly hike. I could be mistaken, though, I've lost track. Oh well, at the end of this chapter, I'll list the jutsus he knows. Onto the story:**

Naruto stared at the hokage. "I don't need any teammates."

Tsunade sighed. She saw the change in the boy and had immediately tried to figure out what was wrongthe answer was obvious when she saw the missing necklace and bandanna. She had given him this mission in an attempt to try and reconcile things with his ex-fiancees.

The mission was an S-rank eradication. A Sound fortification had been discovered near the border, making the Fire lord, aka Naruto's grandfather, though he didn't know it, extremely nervous. Immediately he had sent out a mission request to destroy it. By any means necessary.

"I don't care if you don't need teammates. You will have them anyways." Naruto scowled before pocketing the scroll and heading out the door. He had teammates to collect.

Hearing knocking at her door, Sakura opened it without a moment's hesitation. She froze when she saw who it was, though. "We have a mission. Get your gear together, we leave in 2 hours. Don't be late." Naruto flashed away to alert the others.

Temari, Tenten, Hinata, and Ino all got similar reactions. They did as they had been instructed, however.

The Sound encampment was a good 3 day run, but Naruto seemed determined to reach it in a single day. He never once slowed down, even when the othes lagged behind. He didn't even help them when they began to slip and stumble from exhaustion.

Traveling through the night and most of the morning, they finally arrived at the Sound encampment.

There was no loud trumpets, nor was there the subtle murder. Naruto simply walked into the middle of the camp, waiting for someone to notice him. Notice him they did, and several sound nin flashed towards him. side-stepping the first one, he grabbed the nin's ankle, and swung him like a bat into one of his colleagues. _That_ got things really going.

Ducking under one sound wave, Naruto thrust up, breaking the nin's arm at such an angle that it looked as if the elbow had been completely reversed in the arm. The nin cried out, before his neck was snapped.

Dodging a cloud of kunai, Naruto freed his kamas and began to lay about himself, severing limbs from bodies and slitting throats to make the bodies like pez containers. Various scratches appeared on his body, but he paid them no mind. What he was dealing to the sound nin was a lot worse than what they were doing to him.

Screaming out, Naruto swung his kama down extra hard at a man's collarbone, cutting into him by almost a foot. Blood sprayed into the air, covering Naruto. The nin was dead before he hit the ground.

Freeing his weapon, Naruto looked around himself. The battleground looked more like a slaughterhouse. Blood coated the ground like some kind of macabre paint. Spitting on a corpse, Naruto turned, only to get a kunai in the gut. Growling, he gripped the offending arm and shattered it, before raising the nin into the air. There was a brief pause before he brought the nin down across his knee.

A loud crack split the air as the man's spine was shattered into dust. Setting the weeping form of the now crippled nin down, Naruto knelt to bring himself face to face with the shinobi.

"You're lucky all I did was paralyze you. Now, tell me everything you know about the Sound, who their leader is, and where the rest of your outposts are. Do this, and I might let you live." Naruto emphasized his point by pricking the underside of the nin's neck with a kunai.

Trmebling from the waist up, the nin spilled his guts, with naruto taking notes. When he was done, Naruto folded away his notebook before placing his boot on the nins throat.

The nin gurgled, "I… thought…you would let…me go." Naruto smirked. "I said I would think about it." With one heavy blow, he crushed the man's windpipe, leaving him to suffocate to death.

Straightening, he grunted as he pulled the kunai out of his gut. The iron body was great for hand to hand combat, but when all of the power has been concentrated on a single razor-sharp point, it was useless. Tossing the kunai away, he walked past the others who had just arrived, not even sparing them a gance. "I don't need partners nor teammates."

When he arrived back at the Hokage's tower, she asked him where his teammates were. "They fell behind. They don't matter, I finished the mission. Here's the info I got from a nin before he died." He tossed his notebook over onto Tsunade's desk. "What's my next mission?"

Tsunade began scanning the notebook as she tossed a scroll at naruto. "The fire lord has requested your presence personally. Don't ask me why, I have no idea. However I do know that he's also asked for the rest of you: Kyuubi, Anko, everyone." "Kuso."

It was a full day before the others arrived, exhausted and dirty. Tsunade quirked an eyebrow at them as she took in their appearance. "What happened to you?" Sakura's eye began to twitch, "Naruto made us run all the way to the outpost, and then all he did was destroy it himself." Sakura shuddred as she remembered the sight.

Tsunade looked up sharply, "What did he do?" "He tore them apart," said Temari, " he cut their limbs from them, burned them, drowned them, anything he could do. What was worse was when he caught a nin who managed to stab him." Tenten looked pale, "He snapped the arm, before breaking the man's back across his knee. After questioning the nin, he crushed his throat. When he was done, he pulled the kunai out of himself before saying that he didn't need partners or teammates."

Tsunade glared at them. "That's your fault, as well as Kurenai's, Anko's, Kyuubi's, and Ayame's. Did you guys even think before breaking up with him?"

"Of course we thought!" Tenten protested, "But he ignored us for months!" "Ignoring you, or training?" "Well… he was training, but he still could have come seen us or at least come home!"

"Are you retarded? Do you even know why he was training? He was training so he could protect you! He wasn't doing it to spite you, he wanted to keep you from getting hurt. And Hinata, I'm ashamed of you! Right after he sacrifices his life for you, you dump him, thinking he doesn't love you! Well congratulations, all of you! You have turned Naruto from a shinobi into a weapon! Collect the others of your little troop, you have another mission with him. Naruto's been summoned by the Fire Lord himself, and you are to be his escort, as well as extra protection for the Daimyo. Now get out of my sight!"

the group left the office much more subdued than when they had walked in. they were quiet for a while before Hinata asked, "Was what she said true, did we really turn Naruto into a weapon?" "I don't know," said Temari, "but I do know that he never fought like that before. It was if he had no regard for personal safety."

"His purpose in life is gone, now. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. Remember what he said to Hinata during the Kami incident? 'my dreams are nothing without the precious people who are in them.' So, yes, he's basically given up being hokage."

"But what about his being summoned by the Fire lord? What is that all about?"

Sakura answered temari's question, "Naruto has completed more missions than any other ninja in this village, in the shortest amount of time. It may be possible that the daimyo wants to recognize him for it. Sort of like an awards ceremony."

Tenten sighed, "Traveling with him will be awkward, if not impossible." "Doesn't matter, it's a mission. Come on, we need to collect Kyuubi and the others."

Kyuubi was a little shocked to hear about the mission, but she went along with it. Ever since she had turned her power over to Naruto, she had been just a normal person, with a normal amount of power. She had no wish to become a nin, especially after all of the killing she had done as a demon. She couldn't understand why she was needed on a shinobi mission.

Anko and Kurenai both thought they were on that mission as Jounin overseers, and so had taken charge, while at the same time helping Ayame pack, as she had never been outside of the village. Eventually all of their gear was packed and ready to go.

As they set off, Naruto in the lead, the calm quiet of the forest seemed a little disturbing. Naruto just continued to walk, not paying any mind, though. He didn't even twitch when a black shadow leapt from the trees to his side, carrying two orange fluff balls.

"About time, Itachi. I've been waiting for you." "Gomen, Naruto-san, I was having trouble picking out Pocky flavors." "Why not just get one of each?" "My pocky budget is far too small for that." "Fine, I'll make an account in your name specifically for pocky, so long as you're never late again. It that agreed?"

Itachi looked ecstatic, "Arigatou, Naruto-san. Oh, by the way, I brought Kit and Kyrie!" Naruto nodded, patting the two foxes as they leapt onto his shoulder. "That's good, we may need them if we come up against any Akatsuki. Hey, are you coming with us?"

Itachi nodded. "Tsunade thought it would be good for me to be here as a last-ditch guard. No one would expect me to be with a group from Konoha." "Alright, I want you to guard the rear. When watch comes, we'll split it into two shifts, okay?" "Yes, sir!" "Itachi, were you planning on having kids anytime ever?"

"Well, eventually I was, but I'm still young, I'm only 22." "Would you like to ever have kids?" "Yeah, sure." "Then don't ever call me sir again." "Uh…okay.. Naruto."

The first day of travel ended just before sunset. Itachi started the fire with a low-level jutsu, while the girls pitched their patented ninja insta-tents. Naruto set Kit and Kyrie on patrol around the perimeter to see if their noses and ears could pick up anything his hadn't. The scan turned up nothing.

Naruto took the first shift. He mad a point of not looking at the female majority of the entourage. If he did, it was possible that he might start loving them again. He knew that kyuubi, and probably Hinata, were sad about what they had done, but that didn't excuse them for doing it in the first place.

He had put his trust in them, and they had broken it, as well as their promise. If he had done something like that, the entire way he fashioned himself as a shinobi would be worthless. Everything he stood for, truth, friendship, honor; all had been destroyed between them. He wasn't sure if he was capable of forgiving them even if he wanted to.

So, his only ally with him on tis trip, besides kit and kyrie, was Itachi. The two had become friends when Naruto had finished his training in the cave. Itachi had been looking at a pockystand, unable to decide which flavor to get, so Naruto, unwittingy, helped him out, giving a few suggestions. When Itachi had figured out who he was, the two got into a fight almost immediately, until Itachi told him that he was a spy for Konoha, even showing him the third's signature on an official mission scroll.

They were about halfway to the Fire Lord's mansion when both Itachi and Naruto felt the malevolent energy around them. Scowling, they jumped in sync to avoid kunai that had been thrown at them.

"How many?" asked Naruto. "About 3 or 4. Kinda makes me feel insulted." "My heart bleeds for you. Let's go."

As they said that, four nins materialised right in front of them, making hand seals. Immediately after, spikes of rock erupted from the ground towards them. Naruto jumped again spinning his body like an Olympic diver, landing in front of one nin, and shoved his hand into his gut, before ripping the man's spine out. Itachi managed to get his first with Tsukoyomi (sp?). the man slowly bled from all of his orifices, screaming agony.

Naruto's last he caght by the back of the neck as he made to attack the others. Spinning him around, naruto then proceeded to smash the nins head in repeatedly against a tree. The nin was rather hard-headed, so it was a while before all that was left was a bloody and grey pulpy mess.

Itachi simply kicked his between the legs really, _really_, hard.

Standing, the two let their guard down for a brief second, but tensed again when they heard muted clapping. "Oh, well done. Very well done indeed. Of course, they were only the pawns. How well can you go against the king?"

Out of the shadows scuttled a scorpon-like puppet, with a hideously grinning face. Poison dripped ominously from the tip of a long wooden scorpion tail. "Now you will have to deal with one of the Akatsuki."

**Yay! Another chappie done! Hopefully I portrayed naruto in a darker light for this chapter. However, I did notice a problem. I CAN'T REMEMBER THE NAMES OF ALL THE AKATSUKI! If someone could please provide me with their names and powers, your help would be greatly appreciated. Also, I'm still looking for staff for my C2. if you're interested, say so in your reviews, as I'm unable to check my mail for a while, all requirements I made beforehand about being staff are moot at this point. I've got like 60 subscribed to my C2, and only 20 stories, that's pretty sad, I need some help. THX.**


	20. Chapter 20

Naruto: More than skin deep

Chapter 20

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "So, you would be Sasori of the Akatsuki?" The scorpion-like puppet grinned. "Yes, that's correct. You might as well give up and come quietly, as there is now way you can defeat me." Naruto just chuckled and pulled his spiked gloves on tighter, "You must not have heard a whole lot about me, Sasori of the Akatsuki, otherwise you would have known that I never give up!" with that last statement, Naruto launched himself at Sasori.

The nuke-nin simply scuttled aside, but managed to slam Naruto with his tail. The blow didn't hurt, but it did knock Naruto back several meters into a tree. Sakura growled and made some handsigns "Katon: Housenka no jutsu!"

Several fireballs flew from her mouth, chewing up earth as they impacted with the ground. Again, Sasori had scuttled away. The puppet was not able to avoid the Katana slice Itachi brought down on one of his legs, however, and the blow severed the appendage.

There was no scream of pain, Sasori simply looked at his dmaged limb before renewing his attack. Lashing out with his tail, he aimed for Kurenai, who thankfully was just able to dodge the blow.

The tree that was behind her, however, was obliterated, sending shards of splinters into the crowd of women. Temari and Kyuubi screamed as they were impaled with at least half a dozen splinters several centimeters long.

Naruto had, at this point, recovered sufficiently from the blow he'd received, and had seen what was done to his ex-fiancees. Despite being hurt by them, his protective nature took over, as Kyuubi's chakra transformed him.

Sasori, who had been laughing at the plight of the others, was cut off when he sensed a huge chakra spike coming from where he had hit the nine-tailed brat. Frowning, he turned towards it, and froze.

Naruto was slowly standing, but he looked less human than he did with his tails. The red chakra was flowing from his body in waves, his killing intent massive. However, a spark of gold showed through, slowly gaining strength, until it was on par with the red. That was when the black chakra showed. Like ink in water, it swirled through the red and gold, like poison corrupting an immune system. Gradually, Naruto's visage changed, from blind rage, to cold and calculated, his eyes becoming glacier-like, save for the whites, which turned black. His red-blond hair gained two strands of black that framed his face, making him look truly demonic.

He faced Sasori, who was frozen to the spot. Snarling silently, Naruto's right hand twitched, and a black scythe appeared in it. It was no ordinary scythe, though. Smoke or steam rose from the blade, and it gave off a low, resonating hum. "**My blade calls for your soul, Sasori of the Akatsuki. Do you hear it, the souls this blade has claimed call for it. Do you want to comply with them easily, or shall things get…messy?"**

The demonic voice scared Sasori even more, but he retaliated, "Screw you, asshole!" and he launched his poisoned senbon at Naruto.

The boy narrowed his eyes, and the senbon melted in midair, hitting the ground in a pile of molten metal, quickly cooling. "**My turn."** Naruto swung his scythe, and a ball of black lightning flung from it towards Sasori. The puppet dodged, and the ball hit the ground. But he still didn't totally dodge the attack. The ball sunk into the ground, and a wave of electricity spread from the point of impact just enough to shock Sasori.

Sasori gave an inhuman scream as bolts of black light spread throughout his body. The main puppet body then collapsed in a pile of twisted and scarred machinery and wood. Naruto didn't power down, though. He was right not to, as a shadow stood from the wreckage, hidden by the dust cloud. "You defeated my main puppet, that's something no one has ever done before. Unfortunately, you will not live to tell about it."

The dust cleared, revealing Sasori in all of his puppet body-ness as he removed some summoning scrolls from his back. Immediately afterwards, the group was surrounded by a few hundred puppets, all made by Sasori himself, including one of the old kazekage.

"**everyone, get ready for a fight." **Naruto flashed away, as did Itachi. Instantly, two puppets fell to the ground, one sliced in half, the other burned to ashes. Sasori growled and sent the kazekage's iron sand at Itachi, hoping to crush him, that was dispelled by a tree falling on the cloud of sand, felled by Sakura and her inhuman strength. Another puppet fell as Hinata cut the chakra strings it was attached to, followed by another three falling to one of Tenten's weapon barrages.

Naruto chuckled darkly as he cut another puppet down **"Your puppets will not last forever Sasori. Soon, very soon, we will reach you."**

"I doubt that jinchuuriki." A puppet next to Temari suddenly exploded, sending temari flying, her clothes singed, but with thankfully minor injuries compared to the splinters in her body. As if that had been a signal, more of the beings charged Naruto wrapping him in a huge pile puppets, before they exploded.

Anko screamed and started to head towards where Naruto had been, but Hinata gently held her back, her Byakugan active as she stared through the smoke. "He's still alive, Anko-niichan."(Hinata considers all of those in Naruto's harem to be sisters) Truth be told, a slight wind blew through the clearing, erasing any trace of smoke. Naruto stood right where he had been before, his clothes in tatters, but with no visible mark on his skin. "**That was a cowardly attack, Sasori, but what else should I expect from someone who belongs to such an organization?** **No matter, you will not live long anyways."**

Naruto leaped into the air, before activating his air hike, and disappearing in a yellow flash. A split second later, the puppet army collapsed into piles of junk. Sasori grit his teeth, You will pay for that, Jinchuuriki of the nine-tails." Naruto chuckled darkly, "**You still think that I have her in me? You pitiful fool, you have no idea. She escaped by sacrificing her power and title to me. I am now Kyuubi."**

Sasori snarled. "And I suppose she's also mysteriously fallen in love with you too! Don't play me for a fool, boy, you have no idea who you're messing with!" **"You truly are an idiot. First rule of the ninja, 'look underneath the underneath'. You should also know, I've been blessed by Kami himself, as well as Shinigami. This is the Death God's power that I am using now. What hope do you have against a demon lord wielding the power of two gods?"**

Sasori answered with a charge, his limbs flailing. Naruto sighed before readying himself. As soon as Sasori was within range, Naruto swung his scythe, right through the heart plug. As he did so, the blade of the scythe became mist-like, but still managed to pull out _something_. On the end of the blade, right at the tip, there was a writhing mass of a silvery substance, heavily tainted in black. Slowly, the substance sank into the blade, and the humming of the blade intensified, not by volume, but more like magnitude. A single flash later, the scythe was gone and Naruto had powered down. Laughing once, the young man crumpled to the ground, unconscious, next to the now-empty husk of Sasori.

All who were uninjured quickly went to his sed, save for sakura, who was tending to Temari and Kyuubi. Anko gently picked him up, checking for a pulse. "He's alive, but exhausted, we have t get him to the Fire Lord's mansion quickly. Sakura, how are they doing?"

The pink-haired medic stood, a little weary, but still strong. "Well Temari had some first degree burns from the puppets, as well as some punctures and nasty lacerations from the splinters, I was able to heal most of the damage on her, but she should still be careful. The same with Kyuubi. She seemed to get the brunt of the shrapnel, and a few went deep enough to get to the organs underneath. There's no risk of internal bleeding, but she'll be sore as hell for a while. All in all, I feel that they should be off of their feet for at least two to three days."

Anko nodded, while kurenai spoke up, "Very well. Can they be carried without putting too much stress on their injuries?" Sakura nodded. "Good. Everyone, gather about and make two stretchers. We're only a few miles from the mansion, we should be there sometime tonight if we make good time."

They did indeed make good time and arrived at the mansion just as the sky was beginning to turn into purples and golds. The mansion was hardly a modest affair. The first impediment to any attempt on the Fire lord was a two meter thick stone wall over 6 meters high. Barbed wire ran across the top, was well as various samurai and the odd shinobi. Past that, the main yard of the mansion was filled with teams of nins and various hunter-dogs, canines specially bred for the express purpose of hunting down any beng that posed a danger. A few of the dogs appeared to be well-fed…

Even the mansion itself was a barrier against attack. It stood almost a hundred feet high, built in the style of the old Japanese castles. Shinobi patrolled the roofs, most of them Hyuuga due to the power of their eyes, but there were a few others as well. Samurai guarded the entrances and halls of the castle, never moving no matter what was happening. Of course, this was the way they had been trained, to never respond to anything save a threat upon themselves or the Fire Lord.

Anko, ever the bold one, stepped forward and announced in a clear loud voice, "We are the shinobi that the Fire Lord has requested personally. We present ourselves to you without ill intent and full cooperation."

Immediately, a team of the hunter-dogs stepped forward towards them, the two german shepherds sniffing out each of the nins. When they got to Naruto, however, their eyes widened, and they began whining before they fell to their backs and presented their bellies in submission. The nins were unable to react, they were so shocked. They had never seen their dogs act like this before, and, frankly, it disturbed them. Kyuubi, from her berth on one of the three stretchers, said, "Don't worry, it's just a sign of submisson. They only do that when they recognize a being as their superior within their race."

Unfortunately that did little to abate their fears, and they still remained tense. After a few more seconds, however, the dogs rolled back onto their stomachs, standing proudly, but their heads were bowed.

"Interesting, I have never seen my dogs act like before, how intriguing." They turned to face the newcomer. He was an elderly man, seemingly in his mid 60's, but his body moved with the grace and fluidity of a trained fighter, supported by the fact that there was not an ounce of fat on him. His hair was a fading blond, slowly moving into white, and his goatee was trimmed immaculately. His clothes were rather rich, black kimono with black pants and slippers. Over his left breast was embroidered familiar spiral, and kyuubi began to get a bad feeling about their situation. Her feelings were confirmed when she saw the color of the man's eyes. "Welcome to my mansion, ladies, as you no doubt have already guessed, I am the Fire Lord, otherwise known as Uzumaki Kenji." The man looked fondly at the still body of Naruto, "And I am that boy'sgrandfather."

** Okay, I know I promised that I would write longer chapters, but this one took so long that I figured I might as well just get it out there. Besides, I think I've left you with an interesting cliffhanger. Anyways, sometime ago, I promised a list of Naruto's known jutsus, so, here they are:**

**Kage Bunshin**

**Rasengan**

**Basic Academy**

**Chakra saw (That flip one, I'm too lazy to look up its true name)**

**Chakra air hike(tenshi)**

**Heavenly sword(tenshi)**

**Demon eliminating rasengan(original)**

**Gatling rasengan(original)**

**Ice cloud(original)**

**Hiraishin(Fourth's)**

**Kirigakure**

**Phoenix wings(Tenshi)**

**Soulreap(Shini)**

**Black lightning(Shini)**

**Soultuner(Scythe-Shini)**

**Black Abyss(Shini-soon to come)**

**Hellraiser(Kyuubi special-fountains of fire)**

**Life drain(shini-soon to come)**

**Flying Hamsters of Doom(shini-yes, this will actually be a jutsu)**

**Summon Shinigami**

**Summon Demon Foxes**

**Summon Toads**

**Summon Flying Monkeys of Doom**

**Well, there you have it, the jutsus that have come from my AP class-fried brain. The chapters will get fairly lighter later, as well as things improving for our intrepid hero. ALSO, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE READING THIS AS WELL AS MY OTHER STORY, I NOW HAVE A FORUM FOR LEFT HAND OF KAMI. PLZ POST ON IT! IT'S THERE FOR YOU GUYS!**


	21. Chapter 21

Naruto: More Than Skin Deep

Chapter 21

**Hey all! I'm currently writing this introduction during second period, because Microsoft Access won't work properly, due to my school's filters acting up. (Sometimes I really hate my school computers, even if they are faster than the one I have at home.) Anyways, I thank you all graciously for all of you wonderful reviews, and for those of you who thought flying hamsters of doom were funny. And for those of you who were worried that Naruto was getting perhaps a bit TOO dark, don't worry. He'll only be dark for one or two more chapters. But you know, I'm glad that more people have gone on to my forum, that makes me happy inside. I use the ideas from that forum for reader/writer feedback while in mid-chapters, so I can come out with the most optimum chapters. Enough of my babble, onto the story!**

**BTW: I don't own Jack shit, so don't sue, cuz all you'll get is a happily insane chocolate lab with an eating disorder. **

"You're his grandfather?!" Tenten screeched. The old man winced at the volume before responding. "Yes, my name is Uzumaki Ryu. My son was Uzumaki Arashi, his father. My son chose to become hokage instead of taking over the throne after me. Then he went and got his fool self killed."

Kyuubi scowled, "I would be careful saying that around Naruto, old man. It's his dream to become Hokage and make the village recognize him." Ryu's face tightened, "Ah, yes. I must say I'm not too happy with my village due to their behavior of them, but unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do, short of disbanding the village, and there was no way I would be able to do that."

"So you just left him there to suffer? You could have taken him away, to have him grow up loved!" Kyuubi was getting worked up, while the others were beginning to get some semblance of what was going on.

The man got angry "I wasn't allowed to! The council stopped me from taking him away, saying that he had to be killed! The most I could do was threaten them not to take his life, and that was only because I had Sarutobi on my side! Did you think I wanted him to grow up abused? I love the boy, and I regret that I wasn't there for him earlier, but I am able to do so now. I must try to make up for my weakness beforehand."

Kyuubi still looked angry, but she slowly regained control of herself. "Take us inside, where we can put him down."

Ryu nodded, and led them inside the castle.

Five minutes later, they were kneeling in the throne room, with Naruto sleeping across the hall in the honored guest quarters.

"First things first, young lady, may I ask what your name is?" Ryu asked, indicating Kyuubi. She narrowed her eyes, but didn't budge, "My name is Kyuubi, or rather now Kyu. I am no longer the nine-tailed fox, that is Naruto's job."

Ryu quirked an eyebrow, "Truly? I have heard of his exploits during his missions. That must be what was driving him."

That caused the girls to shift uneasily, something which Ryo took note of. "What is it? Am I wrong? What caused him to do so well?" Hinata bit her lip and looked down towards her feet. "Don't tell me… it was you wasn't it? What did you do?" again, no answer. "TELL ME BEFORE I HAVE YOU EXECUTED!"

"We were his fiancés, your lordship. We broke up with him when he stopped paying attention to us to focus on his training." Ryu stared at Kyuubi. "Finally, a straight answer. I know about your situation. The new Kazekage informed me. He told me that Naruto was conflicted about you during his training. He said that Naruto was unsure whether or not he should marry you before or after he fought the Akatsuki, and I believe he was advised to marry you beforehand. Well, you screwed that up royally, now didn't you?"

"Oi, ojii-san, don't be so hard on them. They did what they thought was right, off of the information thay had. I really should have spent more time at home, instead of training. However, they did act a bit rash."The newcomer's words were conversational, but his tone was clipped. They turned to see Naruto stride forward. He was dressed in a skintight dark red muscle shirt with black combat pants and boots. He was wearing his spike-knuckled gloves, and his kamas were in their sheathes behind his back.

"You recovered so quickly, Naruto-kun. I'm surprised." The blonde grinned, "Don't be. It's not that hard to recover from chakra exhaustion when you're technically a demon lord."

Ryu chuckled, "No, I suppose it isn't at that. So how much have you heard?" "Not a whole lot, just their explanation and your reprimand. Why, did I miss something important?"

Ryu chuckled nervously, "Well you see,… uh…" he rubbed the back of his head. Kyuubi rolled her eyes, "MEN! Naruto, this man here claims he's your grandfather."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Really now? That's interesting. If what you're saying is true, then why didn't you try and help? Surely you could have done something during the chuunin exams, when you were watching the matches."

Ryu smirked, "I did. I'm the one who arranged for you to fight Neji Hyuuga. True, you may have had your matches decided by those slips of paper, but I had a genjutsu on the guard. You were supposed to fight Gaara of the sand."

Naruto copied Ryu's smirk, "So you allowed me to settle a personal match? How kind." Ryu sighed, "Look brat, I don't care if you think I'm your grandfather or not, but one of the other reasons I called you here was to commend you on you spectacular performance on your missions recently. Word has spread, and other, less powerful, lords are starting to bring their business this way. We are currently a time of extreme economic prosperity, thanks to you."

Naruto grunted, "Well, I don't need the thanks, I'm doing my job, same as everyone else. I just happen to be doing it faster and cleaner than the others." "Be that as it may, you're stil doing an exemplary job. Would it be too much to assign you more missions?"

Naruto was now in business mode. "No, I can handle them. I would prefer for them to be higher class though, A-rank gets boring after a while. Also I would prefer if they involved the Akatsuki, or any mentions of demons. There haven't been any attempts recently by kyuubi's enemies, but you never know, she might have a few more than the ones I already killed."

"Good. I will make sure more upper-class missions go your way. Now, I invite you to stay for a few days and rest up, or whatever it is you do." Naruto nodded, bowed, and left the room promptly.

Ryu looked at the retreating figure of his grandson before turning to the girls. "You have a lot to make up for."

Naruto was walking towards the room he had woken up in when his nse caught the scent of foxes. "What do you want, Kyuubi?" The scent halted. "I…wanted to…apologise." Naruto turned, his eyes like ice as he stared into her red ones. "Why? You were perfectly justified in what you did. I should have spent more time at home, paid more attention to you, at leats, that is, until you get killed by the next demon or Akatsuki member to come along. Then we would have what, _maybe_ a years or two. I was training that hard because I wanted to keep anything from hurting you guys! I was doing it so we would have the hope of a future together! And then what do you and the others do? You leave me! Without a single word, even! Did it ever occur to you that if you had just told me what you were feeling, then maybe I might have toned it down a little?"

Kyuubi growled deep in her throat, "What do you mean, tell you how we were feeling? We never got a chance, you were always gone! From sunup to sundown, we never saw you! You of all people should realize when someone has had enough of you!" As the words left her mouth, Kyuubi instantly regretted them, mostly because she knew they were hurtful, but also because as soon as they registered with Naruto, his eyes flared red, a clawed hand suddenly gripping her throat and suspending her in mid air.

Gasping, she choked for what little air she could through his stranglehold. When he spoke, his voice was deep and demonic, "**Give me one reason, just one, why I shouldn't crush your neck right now!" **Kyuubi's face was slowly turning purple, and she clawed at the hand grasping her. "**Well, speak up! What's the matter, having a little trouble?"** His grip tightened, as his killer intent spiked. All of Kyuubi's energy went into a single small squeak before her vision started to darken.

As if sensing her imminent demise, Naruto snarled and released his grip, watching with disdain as Kyuubi gasped in air through her swollen throat. Hissing, he turned and marched in the general direction of the compound's training center. (A/N That dark enough for all of you, or do you want more?)

An hour later, the girls found Kyuubi sitting on her bed with her legs drawn up to her chin, tears falling silently from her face. Instantly, they knew something was wrong. Kyuubi was never one to cry.

Kurenai was the first one to her. "Kyuubi, what's wrong? What happened?" the woman just shook her head, refusing to answer. Hinata walked over and gently put her arm around her shoulder. Kyuubi stiffened a little, but managed to relax. That sent an alarm through the rest of them. Ayame kneeled to look Kyuubi in the eye. "Kyuubi, tell us what happened." Kyubi sniffled, before slowly raising her head from her knees. The girls gasped.

Kyuubi's throat was heavily bruised, dark blue and purple, in the form of a handprint. Her throat was still swollen, but had gone down somewhat from an hour ago. Anko saw red, "Kyuubi, who did this? I'm going to castrate them!" kyuubi mumbled something incoherent, "What was that?" "It…was Naruto." Anko froze in shock. Sakura paled, "Naruto…did that?"

Nodding, Kyuubi sobbed, "Worst part is, I wish he would have finished what he started, I said something to him that I never should have." Ayame gulped but asked, "What could you have possibly have told him that would cause him to act like this?"

"We were arguing about his training schedule, and why we left him. then I told him… that he of all people should know when others have had enough of him."

Naruto was screaming inside his head as he crashed his fist into the trunk of the tree again and again. He knew he shouldn't have done what he had done, but she had to have said that, to bring up those painful memories that he had just managed to suppress.

The tree he was currently abusing was common in Konoha. Well over a hundred feet tall, with a diameter of about 20 feet. The bark was hard as a rock, but underneath, the wood was like steel. Blood flew in the air as Naruto split his knuckles open. Cursing, he switched to his other fist, accidentally hitting too hardwith it and breaking it. Growling, his anger was quickly growing again, and he kicked the tree hard enough to make it visibly shudder. He kicked it twice more before his leg snapped from the force of the blows.

Crying out, he sank to the ground as the sky above him darkened and raindrops began to fall.

"I don't know why I said that, I was just so angry with him. it just slipped out." Ino groaned, and started to bang her head against the wall. "Kyuubi," Stated Kurenai, "For an ex-demon who is thousands of years old, you sure do lack a goodly amount of tact. But what's done is done, now we have to focus on what's important. We have to try and earn Naruto's forgiveness, because we love him, and I for one don't want to have live without him."

Naruto simply lay on the ground, letting the rain wash over him. no matter what he did, he couldn't get them out of his head, they were always there, smiling, laughing, and, occasionally, yelling at him for doing something stupid.

From the angry clouds above him, a golden light formed, growing brighter as it approached the ground. Naruto knew what the cloud was, but right now he simply didn't feel like addressing the deity properly. "What do you want?"

Kami walked over to the boy and stared down into his face. "I've been seeing some disturbing things for you lately, Naruto, is everything okay?" Naruto chuckled darkly, "No, not really. I train myself to the extremes to hold up to my position as your champion, and that of Shinigami, to allow myself a chance to live a normal life soon, and my fiancées leave me necause I wasn't spending enough time with them. Then, when one of them says they're going to apologise, they end up insulting me further."

Kami bit his lip, "You know Naruto, you really don't have to be my champion. You've already earned your way into Heaven. I could take you there now, if you wanted. I could get someone else to by my champion. You don't have to bear the responsibility."

"Man, that sounds like it would be really good right now, but unfortunately, you chose me for this job, and I promised I would do it, and, as you know, I never go back on my promises." "Not even this once, when you're exhausted, and tired?" "As much as I'd like to, dude, I can't. maybe when I've fulfilled my task. Which reminds me, how close am I to ending it?"

Kami tapped his chin thoughtfully, "Well, you last fought a demon a few weeks ago, so I'd say you were pretty close, no more than a few demons left, before all of the ones strong enough to cross over to this plane are eradicated. One question though, your powers are now considered a bloodline, your whole family has been blessed by the two gods, which would include any children, who would also have the powers of a demon fox. If you accept my offer, that will all go away, ending with you."

Naruto sighed, "Kami-sama, at this point, I really couldn't care less. My parents are still young enough to have kids, and they don't really know me, I don't think _anyone_ really does. So yes, I still accept your offer." "Very well" In a flash of golden light, the deity disappeared, the golden aura that had been holding back the rain dissipating, allowing the precipitation to resume its normal activities.

Hmm… sorry about that for those of you who were hoping for a happy chapter, this one was really dark, and I actually started to feel scared for my self when I really thought about what I wrote when Naruto was strangling Kyuubi. But I think that this was fairly possible, considering the direction of the story so far. However, I will tell you that it gets better by the end. But that could go two ways: Naruto might forgive the girls, and start a family of his own, or he might simply destroy all of the bijuu and go to Heaven. It depends on how I'm feeling. XP

**P.S.- happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my family, my readers, and especially my reviewers, and for my good health this year, and I hope that next year I will be able to be thankful for the same things. Enjoy your time with your families, everyone. **


	22. Chapter 22

Naruto

Chapter 22

**Hey all. I got some very interesting reviews for my last chapter, but I'm thankful for all of them. Though, a few of them did scare me, namely, those that wanted Naruto to go straight to Heaven, leaving the girls to rot, or that the girls should be beat to a pulp. I DO NOT CONDONE THE BEATING OF WOMEN! It sickens me whenever I hear about a man beating on his wife or girlfriend, I can't stand it! I also got one or two that were concerned about the direction this story was taking. Again, don't worry, you must have faith in me, the story will not end darkly. As for two endings, I'm a little hesitant to do that because I really don't like dark stories, even though they can be fun to write occasionally. However, I did have a sudden random thought as I was reading some fics. If fire techniques are the Uchiha specialty, does that make them pyros? I can just imagine it…**

**Sasuke-You're lousy and stupid dobe.**

**Naruto-Teme!**

**Sakura-Don't call Sasuke-kun a bastard, Naruto!**

**Naruto-Ohhh Sasukeee…**

**Sasuke-What do you want, dobe?**

**(Naruto holds up lighter with uchiha fan on it)**

**Sasuke-No! He has the precious! Give it backs to us!**

**Naruto-No! it is evil, look at it, it has taken control of your mind! It must be destroyed!**

**Sasuke-No!(Attacks Naruto. Anime dustcloud appears, before Sasuke emerges triumphantly. He then moves to corner of screen and crouches, flicking the lighter on and off)yes! Our precious is returned to us! Pretty colors…**

**Naruto-I…Was too weak…to destroy the lighter. However, it is a burden only I can bear, it must be destroyed.**

**(pushes Sasuke off of a cliff while the Angsty Avenger(Sasuke's new name) continues to play with the lighter) I have succeeded in my quest! I am free to go home. (Walks home)**

**Sakura- Sasuke-kun! (Jumps in after Angsty Avenger)**

**Kakashi-(looks up from book) Where the hell is everybody?**

**Of course, this is purely speculation. There is no guarantee that this would take place, but there might be a remote possibility. Of course, Sasuke would _never _have mental issues, and Sakura is _not_, at least in the beginning, a weakling pining after the Angsty Avenger. You know, I should really get a band to play the superhero song everytime I say that. (Duh Duh-Duh Duh!) Angsty Avenger, Away!**

**Okay, enough screwing around. I got to leave for third now… Back again, now boys and girls, it's storytime!**

Naruto trudged back into the castle, his clothes soaked and muddied from the rain. He was tired, tired of al of the bullshit he had to deal with. He just wanted to get away, but he couldn't not yet, he couldn't break a promise he'd made. _Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain._ (A/N this is a phrase I borrowed from the Wheel of Time series, so don't sue, please). He made his way to his room, ignoring the disgusted looks he was receiving from the Daimyo's honor guard due to his uncleanliness.

He began packing the rest of his gear. He didn't really care if he was leaving early. The sooner he finished his mission, the sooner he could die.

Stuffing the last shirt in, he cinched the duffel bag closed and slid his door open, only to come face to face with Kyuubi.

The two of them stared at each other, the silence between them deafening. Then Kyuubi saw his pack. "So you're leaving?" He didn't answer. "Of course you are, and my guess is that you weren't planning on telling anybody, save maybe for you're grandfather, but only because he's the Daimyo." Again, no response.

The silence between them resumed shortly afterward. Naruto stared at her, his eyes darting occasionally to the huge bruise left on her throat. Kyuubi cleared her throat, looking at him nervously. Unconsciously, she began to inch away as she said, "I'm sorry." This time there was a reaction, "I've heard that before, but no matter what people say, they don't change."

"You have," Kyuubi responded quietly, "and not in a good way, either. I'm scared for you, actually, all of us are. You're no longer cheerful, laughing, nothing! You've turned into an emotionless killing machine, like Itachi used to be!"

Naruto's chakra flared, "Why is that? Why do you think I became like this? You and the others made me what I am! You guys were the reason I was training so hard, but you were also what kept me from going so hard as to kill myself. I realized I needed to get stronger quickly, and so trained as much as I could, as often as I could. I figured that by the time I'd killed the last few demons and the Akatsuki, I wouldn't have to train for the rest of my life, and we could relax and start a family!"

Kyuubi stared at him, her crimson eyes unblinking, before she closed them tightly, tears starting to leak out. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry." She leaned against the doorframe as sobs wracked her body.

Naruto felt his hard exterior melt a little bit as he watched the woman weeping before him. As if it had a mind of its own, his body reached out and wrapped hers in a hug. She stiffened at the touch, before relaxing and gripping the front of his already-soaked shirt. Naruto's tails gently wrapped around her, save for one…

Kyuubi's face turned turnip red, and she looked up at Naruto, who was sliently cursing the return of his perverted appendage. Giggling a little bit, she grabbed Naruto's head in her hands and pulled him in for a kiss.

And that was how they were found by the other girls, making out in Naruto's doorway, with Naruto's tails wrapped around Kyuubi, save for one, which was copping a feel of her behind.

A few minutes later, all of them were sitting in Naruto's room talking. The boy had been shocked at their apologies, but had forgiven them nonetheless. For some reason, he felt like he could fly, there was a light feeling in his chest that made him feel like he was about to burst. When he asked Temari about it, she had giggled and said, "Silly, that's when you feel extreme happiness or love." While the others talked around him, naruto silently contemplated what he felt. He knew he had loved them all beforehand, but that had shattered when they had left him. However, he still got the feeling when he looked at each of them, and if what temari said was right, then he loved them even more so than before.

That night, Naruto didn't leave, and for some strange reason, none of the girls were in their rooms.

After saying their goodbyes to Ryu, the group headed back for Konoha. This time, they were a much happier lot, talking and laughing. The only interruption was a two-tailed weasel, the second to last of Kyuubi's rivals, which was dispatched with relative ease.

As they camped down the night before reaching Konoha, Naruo started as someone joined him in his sleeping bag. Smelling fox on the person, Naruto asked, "Kyuubi, what are you doing?" Even in the pitch dark of his tent, Naruto knew she was smiling. "Well, you said you wanted a family, so I figured that we might as well get started. However, in return, you are to get married to us within the month, is that clear?"

Naruto chuckled, "Yes, ma'am." And silenced her righteous indignation with a kiss, which gradually became more heated.

**Congratulations for all of you who wanted a lemon. I will be posting the lemon on AFF the same time that I post this, so keep an eye out, ok? I'll put a link to my author page on my profile.**

The next morning, a light mist covered the ground surrounding the forest, making the weather unusually chill. The sun shone a pale gold in place of the usual vibrant yellow. The hairs on the back of Naruto's neck stood up as he walked through the forest with the girls.

They formed a basic coloumn, with Naruto at the head, Sakura and Hinata behind him guarding the flanks, behind them was Anko and Kurenai, Ino, Temari, Tenten, Ayame, and Kyuubi. Kit and Kyrie were holding up the rear, using their advanced senses to keep an eye out from behind. The girls weren't focused on their duties, however, as they were far too occupied by glaring at Kyuubi, who was rubbing her abdomen gently.

The former demon was well aware of the fact that she was pregnant, even though it was only the day after. After all, even though she was no longer a demoness, she still had full awareness of her body and all of its functions. "So, which is it?" Temari asked, as she tore her eyes away from the red head and began scanning the woods. Kyuubi smiled softly, "It's a boy. It's definitely a boy." Tenten barked out a short laugh, "Do you think the father knows your pregnant yet?"

Kyuubi shook her head, "No, not yet, I'll tell him when he's finished what he needs to do here. There are still Akatsuki out there that need to be eliminated before we can relax, and I don't want him worrying about me too much."

Ino clucked her tongue, "Yeah well, you're not going to be the only one soon, Kyu. I intend to keep on trying until I'm pregnant as well. Not that it won't be fun in the process." Kyuubi blushed. "Ino, you are such a pervert."

Naruto's original fears were confirmed when a three-bladed scythe came flying out of the mist towards them. The girls ducked, but Naruto simply caught the scythe by the handle. "I was wondering when Akatsuki would show up again. And there are three of you this time." Indeed, three shadows came out of the mist, to reveal a tall man with white hair, his face peeved, a man that looked more like a girl, and another tall man carrying a huge sword made of scales.

"So, we have Hidan, Deidara, and Kisame all together at once. You stupid fools." Kisame growled dangerously, "And what, exactly, it is that makes us such stupid fools?" Naruto chuckled darkly as his chakra began to spread around him, red, blue, gold, and black, all mixing together, "Because now I have something worth protecting…**And I will never leave them!**"

Twisting the scythe in his grip, Naruto hurled it towards Hidan piercing him in the shoulder and side, pinning him to a tree. Kisame snarled and charged Naruto, but stopped when a flash caught him in the stomach. Kisame coughed up a huge gout of blood, but couldn't recover properly before he was caught by a spin kick to the side of his head sending him crashing to the ground.

Naruto then leapt up, avoiding Deidara's explosive bird. Spinning, he dodged the kunai, that a now-free Hidan had thrown. Flashing through handseals, he cried out "Naruto Pinball Combo!" A seal appeared in mid-air underneath his feet, and he leaped off of it, disappearing in a yellow flash.

Suddenly, yellow streaks surrounded Kisame, and the shark-like man began to grow cuts and bruises all over his body, before collapsing. Naruto appeared, breathing barely affected, as he brought one of his kamas up to defend against Hidan's scythe. The man curled his lip at Naruto, "You may have beaten Kisame, but I am invincible, I can recover from any wound you give me!" Naruto smirked, despite the fact that there was a scythe blade mere centimeters from his face, "Really? We have something in common, then. Too bad I have to kill you."

Locking his kama underneath a blade, Naruto spun, ripping the weapon from Hidan's grasp. Following through with his motion, he pulled out his second kama and cut Hidan in half from the groin to the head. Quickly making seals, he burned the body to ashes before Hidan had a chance to regenerate.

His extra precaution cost him, though, as one of Deidara's explosives caught him from behind, throwing him forward into a tree. The girly-man smirked, "That was good, yeah. True artwork." "You call that artwork? I thought art was the creation of something, not the destruction of it." Naruto brought himself back to his feet.

Deidara sneered, "It's called an artistic license, brat. Now, enough screwing around. Come with me, I'm tired of having to fucking track you everywhere." "Really? My heart bleeds for you. And I don't see what the point is in me going with you is, anyway. The nine-tailed fox no longer resides in me. I _am_ Kyuubi."

Deidara began to sweat, "The demon took over?" "No, you dumbshit! I absorbed her powers! Kami, how fucking retarded do you have to be?" Deidara grimaced, "Then what happened to the demon?"

Looking around, his eyes caught on Kyu, and he smirked. "You little bastard, so that's what happened. Well, Let's see how your girlfriend likes my art!"

A clay pigeon burst from his hand towards Kyu. It never made it to its intended target, as Naruto crushed it quickly in his hand. Black flames spread from his free hand as the Soul Reaper appeared, its haunting song filling the air. "**Deidara of the Akatsuki, you have been found guilty of crimes against life. Your punishment is therefore death."**

Naruto charged the cloaked man, his first slash barely being dodged. Deidara saw his opportunity in Naruto's overextended lunge, and began to mold more clay with lightning speed. It never finished. Naruto reversed his grip on the scythe, and brought it around the way it came. The blade cut through the body bloodlessly, instead ripping out the shade of Deidara. The shade screamed silently, a look of pure agony on its face. Once the shade was free of the shell, a black hand reached forth from beyond space and time and collected it. The shell of Deidara collapsed to the ground, eyes still wide open, but was quickly burned by Anko, while Kurenai took care of Kisame.

The chakra aura subsided, and the scythe disappeared. Suddenly exhausted, Naruto began to tilt on his feet, but was supported by Sakura and Ayame, both of whom gave him a loving smile. He smiled weakly back at them, and they made their way towards Konoha.

**I know, I know, I made them make up rather quickly, but I don't have a whole lot of time left in this story, so I wanted to make sure I was able to continue on. My brain has totally been fried writing this, so please forgive me. Naruto has so far killed I think, four Akatsuki, with four more to go, as Itachi is no longer a member. And as for one of my reviewers' worries about whether or not the epilogue was a sequel, no its not. It's just just an epilogue. 25 chapters of story, with an extra chapter telling what happens later. But, I still think the Left hand of Kami is more popular than this, at least for where it is now. Anyways, I have to go and post this and the lemon now, so, bye.**

**-Soulthief2**


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